RSnaa^llii';  sirs!  ■  ill's 

WKBttttEBBBBufiBitt 


k  m<M 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


The  Glenn  Negley  Collection 
of  Utopian  Literature 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2010  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/manmadeworldorouOOgilm 


THE 

Man-Made  World 

or. 
OUR    ANDROCENTRIC    CULTURE 

BY 
CHARLOTTE  PERKINS  GILMAN 


THIRD   EDITION 


CHARLTON     COMPANY 
NEW   YORK 

1914 


Copyright  1911 

by 

CHARLOTTE    PERKINS  OILMAN 


This  book  is  dedicated  with  reverent 
love  and  gratitude 

to 

Lester  F.  Ward 

Sociologist  and  Humanitarian,  one  of  the 
world's  great  men;  a  creative  thinker  to 
whose  wide  knowledge  and  power  of  vision 
we  are  indebted  for  a  new  grasp  of  the  na- 
ture and  processes  of  Society,  and  to  whom 
all  women  are  especially  bound  in  honor  and 
gratitude  for  his  Gynaecocentric  Theory  of 
Life,  than  which  nothing  so  important  to 
humanity  has  been  advanced  since  the 
Theory  of  Evolution,  and  nothing  so  im- 
portant to  women  has  ever  been  given  to  the 
world. 


PREFACE 

Those  who  wish  to  study  the  underlying 
facts  on  which  this  book  is  based  are  referred 
to  "Pure  Sociology,"  by  Lester  F.  Ward, 
chapter  XIV,  in  which  the  Androcentric 
Theory  of  Life  is  fairly  defined  and  con- 
trasted with  the  Gynaecocentric  Theory. 

That  this  last  is  disputed  by  the  majority 
of  present  day  biologists  will  not  surprise 
anyone  who  reads  it  and  who  is  familiar 
with  the  nature  of  the  human  mind.  All 
new  scientific  discoveries  are  slow  of  uni- 
versal acceptance;  and  anything  so  sub- 
versive of  historic  custom  as  this,  involving 
so  complete  a  change  of  attitude  regarding 
the  relations  of  the  sexes  to  one  another  and 
to  Society,  cannot  be  expected  to  make 
rapid  progress  in  popular  belief.  Time, 
study  and  experience  may  be  trusted  to 
establish  the  truth. 

Assuming  the  Gynaecocentric  Theory  to 
be  the  true  one — that  the  female  is  the  race 
type,  and  the  male,  originally  but  a  sex  type, 
reaching  a  later  equality  with  the  female, 
and,  in  the  human  race,  becoming  her  master 
for  a  considerable  historic  period — this  book 


gives  a  series  of  studies  of  the  effect  upon 
our  human  development  of  this  unprece- 
dented dominance  of  the  male,  showing  it  to 
be  by  no  means  an  unmixed  good. 

In  so  utterly  untrodden  a  field,  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  errors  may  occur,  and 
that,  in  view  of  the  colossal  injustice  in- 
volved, some  natural  animus  may  occasion- 
ally be  visible;  but  if  any  man  be  offended 
by  such  error  in  fact  or  feeling,  let  him  ex- 
amine the  many  books  that  have  been  writ- 
ten about  women. 

Men  have  written  copiously  about  women, 
treating  them  always  as  females,  with  an 
offensiveness  and  falsity  patent  to  modern 
minds.  This  book  treats  of  men  as  males  in 
contradistinction  to  their  qualities  as  human 
beings,  but  never  approaches  for  a  moment 
the  abusiveness  and  contempt  that  has  been 
shown  to  women  as  females. 

It  grants  to  men,  today,  a  high  preemi- 
nence over  women  in  human  development, 
but  shows  this  preeminence  to  be  a  distinc- 
tion of  humanity  and  not  of  sex,  fully  open 
to  women  if  they  use  their  human  powers. 

When  we  learn  to  differentiate  between 
humanity  and  masculinity  we  shall  give 
honor  where  honor  is  due. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
I.      As  TO  HUMANNESS 9 

II.     The  Man-Made  Family 26 

III.  Health  and  Beauty 44 

IV.  Men  and  Art 70 

V.     Masculine  Literature 87 

VI.     Games  and  Sports 107 

VII.     Ethics  and  Religion 126 

VIII.     Education    143 

IX.  "Society"  and  "Fashion".  . .   163 

X.     Law  and  Government 178 

XL  Crime  and  Punishment.  . . .   193 

XII.     Politics  and  Warfare  208 

XIII.  Industry  and  Economics  . . .   227 

XIV.  A  Human  World 244 


CHAPTER  I. 


AS  TO   HUMANNESS 


LET  us  begin,  inoffensively,  with 
sheep.  The  sheep  is  a  beast  with 
which  we  are  all  familiar,  being 
much  used  in  religious  imagery;  the  com- 
mon stock  of  painters;  a  staple  article  of 
diet;  one  of  our  main  sources  of  clothing, 
and  an  everyday  symbol  of  bashfulness  and 
stupidity. 

In  some  grazing  regions  the  sheep  is  an 
object  of  terror,  destroying  grass,  bush  and 
forest  by  omnipresent  nibbling;  on  the  great 
plains,  sheep-keeping  frequently  results  in 
insanity,  owing  to  the  loneliness  of  the  shep- 
herd, and  the  monotonous  appearance  and 
behavioi..  of  the  sheep. 

By  thi  poet,  young  sheep  are  preferred, 
the  lamb  gambolling  gaily;  unless  it  be  in 
hymns,  where  "all  we  like  sheep"  are  repeat- 


10  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

edly  described,  and  much  stress  is  laid  upon 
the  straying  propensities  of  the  animal. 

To  the  scientific  mind  there  is  special  in- 
terest in  the  sequacity  of  sheep,  their  habit 
of  following  one  another  with  automatic 
imitation.  This  instinct,  we  are  told,  has 
been  developed  by  ages  of  wild  crowded 
racing  on  narrow  ledges,  along  precipices, 
chasms,  around  sudden  spurs  and  corners, 
only  the  leader  seeing  when,  where  and  how 
to  jump.  If  those  behind  jumped  exactly  as 
he  did,  they  lived.  If  they  stopped  to  ex- 
ercise independent  judgment,  they  were 
pushed  off  and  perished;  they  and  their 
judgment  with  them. 

All  these  things,  and  many  that  are  simi- 
lar, occur  to  us  when  we  think  of  sheep. 
They  are  also  ewes  and  rams.  Yes,  truly; 
but  what  of  it?  All  that  has  been  said  was 
said  of  sheep,  genus  ovis,  that  bland  beast, 
compound  of  mutton,  wool,  and  foolishness, 
so  widely  known.  If  we  think  of  the  sheep- 
dog (and  dog-ess),  the  shepherd  (and  shep- 
herd-ess), of  the  ferocious  sheep-eating  bird 
of  New  Zealand,  the  Kea  (and  Kea-ess), 
all  these  herd,  guard,  or  kill  the  sheep,  both 


AS  TO  HUM  AN  NESS  11 

rams  and  ewes  alike.  In  regard  to  mutton, 
to  wool,  to  general  character,  we  think  only 
of  their  sheepishness,  not  at  all  of  their  ram- 
ishness  or  eweishness.  That  which  is  ovine 
or  bovine,  canine,  feline  or  equine,  is  easily 
recognized  as  distinguishing  that  particular 
species  of  animal,  and  has  no  relation  what- 
ever to  the  sex  thereof. 

Returning  to  our  muttons,  let  us  consider 
the  ram,  and  wherein  his  character  differs 
from  the  sheep.  We  find  he  has  a  more 
quarrelsome  disposition.  He  paws  the  earth 
and  makes  a  noise.  He  has  a  tendency  to 
butt.  So  has  a  goat — Mr.  Goat.  So  has 
Mr.  Buffalo.  This  tendency  to  plunge  head 
foremost  at  an  adversary — and  to  find  any 
other  gentleman  an  adversary  on  sight — 
does  not  pertain  to  sheep,  to  genus  oris; 
but  to  any  male  creature  with  horns. 

As  "function  comes  before  organ,"  we 
may  even  give  a  reminiscent  glance  down 
the  long  path  of  evolution,  and  see  how  the 
mere  act  of  butting — passionately  and  per- 
petually repeated — born  of  the  belligerent 
spirit  of  the  male — produced  horns! 

The  ewe,  on  the  other  hand,  exhibits  love 


12  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

and  care  for  her  little  ones,  gives  them  milk 
and  tries  to  guard  them.  But  so  does  a  goat 
— Mrs.  Goat.  So  does  Mrs.  Buffalo  and 
the  rest.  This  mother  instinct  is  no  pecu- 
liarity of  genus  ovis,  but  of  any  female 
creature. 

Even  the  bird,  though  not  a  mammal, 
shows  the  same  mother-love  and  mother- 
care,  while  the  father  bird,  though  not  a  but- 
ter, fights  with  beak  and  wing  and  spur. 
His  competition  is  more  effective  through 
display.  The  wish  to  please,  the  need  to 
please,  the  overmastering  necessity  upon 
him  that  he  secure  the  favor  of  the  female, 
has  made  the  male  bird  blossom  like  a  but- 
terfly. He  blazes  in  gorgeous  plumage, 
rears  haughty  crests  and  combs,  shows 
drooping  wattles  and  dangling  blobs  such 
as  the  turkey-cock  affords;  long  splendid 
feathers  for  pure  ornament  appear  upon 
him;  what  in  her  is  a  mere  tail-effect  be- 
comes in  him  a  mass  of  glittering  drapery. 

Partridge-cock,  farmyard-cock,  peacock, 
from  sparrow  to  ostrich,  observe  his  mien! 
To  strut  and  languish;  to  exhibit  every 
beauteaus  lure;  to  sacrifice  ease,  comfort, 


AS  TO  HUMANNESS  13 

speed,  everything — to  beauty — for  her  sake 
— this  is  the  nature  of  the  he-bird  of  any 
species ;  the  characteristic,  not  of  the  turkey, 
but  of  the  cock!  With  drumming  of  loud 
wings,  with  crow  and  quack  and  bursts  of 
glorious  song,  he  woos  his  mate;  displays 
his  splendors  before  her;  fights  fiercely  with 
his  rivals.  To  butt — to  strut — to  make  a 
noise — all  for  love's  sake;  these  acts  are 
common  to  the  male. 

We  may  now  generalize  and  clearly  state : 
That  is  masculine  which  belongs  to  the  male 
— to  any  or  all  males,  irrespective  of  species. 
That  is  feminine  which  belongs  to  the  fe- 
male, to  any  or  all  females,  irrespective  of 
species.  That  is  ovine,  bovine,  feline,  ca- 
nine, equine  or  asinine  which  belongs  to  that 
species,  irrespective  of  sex. 

In  our  own  species  all  this  is  changed. 
We  have  been  so  taken  up  with  the  phe- 
nomena of  masculinity  and  femininity,  that 
our  common  humanity  has  largely  escaped 
notice.  We  know  we  are  human,  naturally, 
and  are  very  proud  of  it ;  but  we  do  not  con- 
sider in  what  our  humanness  consists;  nor 
how  men  and  women  may  fall  short  of  it,  or 


14  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

overstep  its  bounds,  in  continual  insistence 
upon  their  special  differences.  It  is  "manly" 
to  do  this;  it  is  "womanly"  to  do  that;  but 
what  a  human  being  should  do  under  the 
circumstances  is  not  thought  of. 

The  only  time  when  we  do  recognize  what 
we  call  "common  humanity"  is  in  extreme 
cases,  matters  of  life  and  death ;  when  either 
men  or  women  are  expected  to  behave  as  if 
they  were  also  human  creatures.  Since  the 
range  of  feeling  and  action  proper  to  hu- 
manity, as  such,  is  far  wider  than  that 
proper  to  either  sex,  it  seems  at  first  some- 
what remarkable  that  we  have  given  it  so 
little  recognition. 

A  little  classification  will  help  us  here. 
We  have  certain  qualities  in  common  with 
inanimate  matter,  such  as  weight,  opacity, 
resilience.  It  is  clear  that  these  are  not 
human.  We  have  other  qualities  in  com- 
mon with  all  forms  of  life ;  cellular  construc- 
tion, for  instance;  the  reproduction  of  cells 
and  the  need  of  nutrition.  These  again  are 
not  human.  We  have  others,  many  others, 
common  to  the  higher  mammals;  which  are 
not  exclusively  ours — are  not  distinctively 


AS  TO  HUMANNESS  15 

human.  What  then  are  true  human  charac- 
teristics ?  In  what  way  is  the  human  species 
distinguished  from  all  other  species? 

Our  human-ness  is  seen  most  clearly  in 
three  main  lines:  it  is  mechanical,  psychical 
and  social.  Our  power  to  make  and  use 
things  is  essentially  human;  we  alone  have 
extra-physical  tools.  We  have  added  to  our 
teeth  the  knife,  sword,  scissors,  mowing 
machine;  to  our  claws  the  spade,  harrow, 
plough,  drill,  dredge.  We  are  a  protean 
creature,  using  the  larger  brain  power 
through  a  wide  variety  of  changing  weapons. 
This  is  one  of  our  main  and  vital  distinc- 
tions. Ancient  animal  races  are  traced  and 
known  by  mere  bones  and  shells,  ancient 
human  races  by  their  buildings,  tools  and 
utensils. 

That  degree  of  brain  development  which 
gives  us  the  human  mind  is  a  clear  distinc- 
tion of  race.  The  savage  who  can  count  a 
hundred  is  more  human  that  the  savage  who 
can  count  ten. 

More  prominent  than  either  of  these  is 
the  social  nature  of  humanity.  We  are  by 
no    means    the    only    group-animal;    that 


Hi  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

ancient  type  of  industry  the  ant,  and  even 
the  well-worn  bee,  are  social  creatures.  But 
insects  of  their  kind  are  found  living  alone. 
Human  beings  never.  Our  human-ness  be- 
gins with  some  low  form  of  social  relation 
and  increases  as  that  relation  develops. 

Human  life  of  any  sort  is  dependent  upon 
what  Kropotkin  calls  "mutual  aid,"  and  hu- 
man progress  keeps  step  absolutely  with 
that  interchange  of  specialized  services 
which  makes  society  organic.  The  nomad, 
living  on  cattle  as  ants  live  on  theirs,  is 
less  human  than  the  farmer,  raising  food  by 
intelligently  applied  labor;  and  the  exten- 
sion of  trade  and  commerce,  from  mere  vil- 
lage market-places  to  the  world-exchanges 
of  today,  is  extension  of  human-ness  as  well. 

Humanity,  thus  considered,  is  not  a  thing 
made  at  once  and  unchangeable,  but  a  stage 
of  development;  and  is  still,  as  Wells  de- 
scribes it,  "in  the  making."  Our  human- 
ness  is  seen  to  lie  not  so  much  in  what  we 
are  individually,  as  in  our  relations  to  one 
another;  and  even  that  individuality  is  but 
the  result  of  our  relations  to  one  another. 
It  is  in  what  we  do  and  how  we  do  it,  rather 


AS  TO  HUM  ANN  ESS  17 

than  in  what  we  are.  Some,  philosophically 
inclined,  exalt  "being"  over  "doing."  To 
them  this  question  may  be  put:  "Can  you 
mention  any  forms  of  life  that  merely  'is,' 
without  doing  anything?" 

Taken  separately  and  physically,  we  are 
animals,  genus  homo;  taken  socially  and 
psychically,  we  are,  in  varying  degree,  hu- 
man ;  and  our  real  history  lies  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  human-ness. 

Our  historic  period  is  not  very  long.  Real 
written  history  only  goes  back  a  few  thou- 
sand years,  beginning  with  the  stone  records 
of  ancient  Egypt.  During  this  period  we 
have  had  almost  universally  what  is  here 
called  an  Androcentric  Culture.  The  his- 
tory, such  as  it  was,  was  made  and  written 
by  men. 

The  mental,  the  mechanical,  the  social  de- 
velopment, was  almost  wholly  theirs.  We 
have,  so  far,  lived  and  suffered  and  died  in 
a  man-made  world.  So  general,  so  un- 
broken, has  been  this  condition,  that  to  men- 
tion it  arouses  no  more  remark  than  the 
statement  of  a  natural  law.  We  have  taken 
it  for  granted,  since  the  dawn  of  civilization, 


18  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

that  "mankind"  meant  men-kind,  and  the 
world  was  theirs. 

Women  we  have  sharply  delimited. 
Women  were  a  sex;  "the  sex,"  according  to 
chivalrous  toasts;  they  were  set  apart  for 
special  services  peculiar  to  femininity.  As 
one  English  scientist  put  it,  in  1888, 
"Women  are  not  only  not  the  race — they 
are  not  even  half  the  race,  but  a  sub-species 
told  off  for  reproduction  only." 

This  mental  attitude  toward  women  is 
even  more  clearly  expressed  by  Mr.  H.  B. 
Marriot- Watson  in  his  article  on  "The 
American  Woman"  in  the  "Nineteenth 
Century"  for  June,  1904,  where  he  says: 
"Her  constitutional  restlessness  has  caused 
her  to  abdicate  those  functions  which  alone 
excuse  or  explain  her  existence."  This  is  a 
peculiarly  happy  and  condensed  expression 
of  the  relative  position  of  women  during  our 
androcentric  culture.  The  man  was  ac- 
cepted as  the  race  type  without  one  dis- 
sentient voice;  and  the  woman — a  strange, 
diverse  creature,  quite  disharmonious  in  the 
accepted  scheme  of  things — was  excused 
and  explained  only  as  a  female. 


AS  TO  HUMANNESS  19 

She  has  needed  volumes  of  such  excuse 
and  explanation;  also,  apparently,  volumes 
of  abuse  and  condemnation.  In  any  library 
catalogue  we  may  find  books  upon  books 
about  women:  physiological,  sentimental, 
didactic,  religious — all  manner  of  books 
about  women,  as  such.  Even  to-day  in  the 
works  of  Marholm — poor  young  Weininger, 
Moebius,  and  others,  we  find  the  same  per- 
petual discussion  of  women — as  such. 

This  is  a  book  about  men — as  such.  It 
differentiates  between  the  human  nature 
and  the  sex  nature.  It  will  not  go  so  far 
as  to  allege  man's  masculine  traits  to  be  all 
that  excuse  or  explain  his  existence;  but 
it  will  point  out  what  are  masculine  traits  as 
distinct  from  human  ones,  and  what  has 
been  the  effect  on  our  human  life  of  the  un- 
bridled dominance  of  one  sex. 

We  can  see  at  once,  glaringly,  what  would 
have  been  the  result  of  giving  all  human 
affairs  into  female  hands.  Such  an  extraor- 
dinary and  deplorable  situation  would  have 
"feminized"  the  world.  We  should  have  all 
become  "effeminate." 

See  how  in  our  use  of  language  the  case 


20  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

is  clearly  shown.  The  adjectives  and  de- 
rivatives based  on  woman's  distinctions  are 
alien  and  derogatory  when  applied  to  hu- 
man affairs;  "effeminate" — too  female,  con- 
notes contempt,  but  has  no  masculine 
analogue;  whereas  "emasculate" — not 
enough  male,  is  a  term  of  reproach,  and  has 
no  feminine  analogue.  "Virile" — manly,  we 
oppose  to  "puerile" — childish,  and  the  very 
word  "virtue"  is  derived  from  "vir" — a  man. 

Even  in  the  naming  of  other  animals  we 
have  taken  the  male  as  the  race  type,  and 
put  on  a  special  termination  to  indicate  "his 
female,"  as  in  lion,  lioness;  leopard,  leop- 
ardess ;  while  all  our  human  scheme  of  things 
rests  on  the  same  tacit  assumption;  man  be- 
ing held  the  human  type;  woman  a  sort  of 
accompaniment  and  subordinate  assistant, 
merely  essential  to  the  making  of  people. 

She  has  held  always  the  place  of  a  prepo- 
sition in  relation  to  man.  She  has  been  con- 
sidered above  him  or  below  him,  before  him, 
behind  him,  beside  him,  a  wholly  relative  ex- 
istence— "Sydney's  sister,"  "Pembroke's 
mother" — but  never  by  any  chance  Sydney 
or  Pembroke  herself. 


AS  TO  HUMANNESS  21 

Acting  on  this  assumption,  all  human 
standards  have  been  based  on  male  char- 
acteristics, and  when  we  wish  to  praise  the 
work  of  a  woman,  we  say  she  has  "a  mascu- 
line mind." 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  deny  or  reverse  a 
universal  assumption.  The  human  mind 
has  had  a  good  many  jolts  since  it  began 
to  think,  but  after  each  upheaval  it  settles 
down  as  peacefully  as  the  vine-growers  on 
Vesuvius,  accepting  the  last  lava  crust  as 
permanent  ground. 

What  we  see  immediately  around  us, 
what  we  are  born  into  and  grow  up  with, 
be  it  mental  furniture  or  physical,  we  as- 
sume to  be  the  order  of  nature. 

If  a  given  idea  has  been  held  in  the  human 
mind  for  many  generations,  as  almost  all 
our  common  ideas  have,  it  takes  sincere  and 
continued  effort  to  remove  it;  and  if  it  is 
one  of  the  oldest  we  have  in  stock,  one  of 
the  big,  common,  unquestioned  world  ideas, 
vast  is  the  labor  of  those  who  seek  to 
change  it. 

Nevertheless,  if  the  matter  is  one  of  im- 
portance, if  the  previous  idea  was  a  palpable 


22  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

error,  of  large  and  evil  effeet,  and  if  the 
new  one  is  true  and  widely  important,  the 
effort  is  worth  making. 

The  task  here  undertaken  is  of  this  sort. 
It  seeks  to  show  that  what  we  have  all  this 
time  called  "human  nature"  and  deprecated, 
was  in  great  part  only  male  nature,  and 
good  enough  in  its  place ;  that  what  we  have 
called  "masculine"  and  admired  as  such,  was 
in  large  part  human,  and  should  be  applied 
to  both  sexes;  that  what  we  have  called 
"feminine"  and  condemned,  was  also  largely 
human  and  applicable  to  both.  Our  andro- 
centric culture  is  so  shown  to  have  been, 
and  still  to  be,  a  masculine  culture  in  excess, 
and  therefore  undesirable. 

In  the  preliminary  work  of  approaching 
these  facts  it  will  be  well  to  explain  how  it 
can  be  that  so  wide  and  serious  an  error 
should  have  been  made  by  practically  all 
men.  The  reason  is  simply  that  they  were 
men.  They  were  males,  and  saw  women  as 
females — and  not  otherwise. 

So  absolute  is  this  conviction  that  the  man 
who  reads  will  say,  "Of  course!  How  else 
are  we  to  look   at  women   except   as   fe- 


AS  TO  HUMANNESS  23 

males?  They  are  females,  aren't  they?" 
Yes,  they  are,  as  men  are  males  unquestion- 
ably ;  but  there  is  possible  the  frame  of  mind 
of  the  old  marquise  who  was  asked  by  an 
English  friend  how  she  could  bear  to  have 
the  footman  serve  her  breakfast  in  bed — to 
have  a  man  in  her  bed-chamber — and  re- 
plied sincerely,  "Call  you  that  thing  there 
a  man?" 

The  world  is  full  of  men,  but  their  prin- 
cipal occupation  is  human  work  of  some 
sort ;  and  women  see  in  them  the  human  dis- 
tinction preponderantly.  Occasionally  some 
unhappy  lady  marries  her  coachman — long 
contemplation  of  broad  shoulders  having  an 
effect,  apparently ;  but  in  general  women  see 
the  human  creature  most;  the  male  creature 
only  when  they  love. 

To  the  man,  the  whole  world  was  his 
world;  his  because  he  was  male;  and  the 
whole  world  of  woman  was  the  home;  be- 
cause she  was  female.  She  had  her  pre- 
scribed sphere,  strictly  limited  to  her  femi- 
nine occupations  and  interests;  he  had  all 
the  rest  of  life;  and  not  only  so,  but,  having 
it,  insisted  on  calling  it  male. 


24  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

This  accounts  for  the  general  attitude  of 
men  toward  the  now  rapid  humanization  of 
women.  From  her  first  faint  struggles  to- 
ward freedom  and  justice,  to  her  present 
valiant  efforts  toward  full  economic  and  po- 
litical equality,  each  step  has  been  termed 
"unfeminine,"  and  resented  as  an  intrusion 
upon  man's  place  and  power.  Here  shows 
the  need  of  our  new  classification,  of  the 
three  distinct  fields  of  life — masculine,  femi- 
nine and  human. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  a  "woman's 
sphere,"  sharply  defined  and  quite  different 
from  his;  there  is  also  a  "man's  sphere,"  as 
sharply  defined  and  even  more  limited;  but 
there  remains  a  common  sphere — that  of 
humanity,  which  belongs  to  both  alike. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  what  is  known  as 
"the  woman's  movement,"  it  was  sharply 
opposed  on  the  ground  that  women  would 
become  "unsexed."  Let  us  note  in  pass- 
ing that  they  have  become  unsexed  in  one 
particular,  most  glaringly  so,  and  that  no 
one  has  noticed  or  objected  to  it. 

As  part  of  our  androcentric  culture,  we 
may  point  to  the  peculiar  reversal  of  sex 


AS  TO  HUM  AN  NESS  25 

characteristics  which  makes  the  human  fe- 
male carry  the  burden  of  ornament.  She 
alone,  of  all  human  creatures,  has  adopted 
the  essentially  masculine  attribute  of  special 
sex-decoration;  she  does  not  fight  for  her 
mate,  as  yet,  but  she  blooms  forth  as  the 
peacock  and  bird  of  paradise,  in  poignant 
reversal  of  nature's  laws,  even  wearing  mas- 
culine feathers  to  further  her  feminine  ends. 

Woman's  natural  work  as  a  female  is 
that  of  the  mother;  man's  natural  work  as 
a  male  is  that  of  the  father;  their  mutual 
relation  to  this  end  being  a  source  of  joy 
and  well-being  when  rightly  held:  but  hu- 
man work  covers  all  our  life  outside  of  these 
specialities.  Every  handicraft,  every  pro- 
fession, every  science,  every  art,  all  normal 
amusements  and  recreations,  all  govern- 
ment, education,  religion;  the  whole  living 
world  of  human  achievement:  all  this  is 
human. 

That  one  sex  should  have  monopolized  all 
human  activities,  called  them  "man's  work," 
and  managed  them  as  such,  is  what  is  meant 
by  the  phrase  "Androcentric  Culture." 


26  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    MAN-MADE    FAMILY 

THE  family  is  older  than  humanity, 
and  therefore  cannot  be  called  a 
human  institution.  A  postoffice, 
now,  is  wholly  human ;  no  other  creature  has 
a  postoffice,  but  there  are  families  in  plenty 
among  birds  and  beasts;  all  kinds  perma- 
nent and  transient;  monogamous,  poly- 
gamous and  polyandrous. 

We  are  now  to  consider  the  growth  of  the 
family  in  humanity;  what  is  its  rational  de- 
velopment in  humanness;  in  mechanical, 
mental  and  social  lines;  in  the  extension  of 
love  and  service;  and  the  effect  upon  it  of 
this  strange  new  arrangement — a  masculine 
proprietor. 

Like  all  natural  institutions  the  family 
has  a  purpose;  and  is  to  be  measured  pri- 
marily as  it  serves  that  purpose;  which  is, 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  27 

the  care  and  nurture  of  the  young.  To  pro- 
tect the  helpless  little  ones,  to  feed  and  shel- 
ter them,  to  ensure  them  the  benefits  of  an 
ever  longer  period  of  immaturity,  and  so  to 
improve  the  race — this  is  the  original  pur- 
pose of  the  family. 

When  a  natural  institution  becomes  hu- 
man it  enters  the  plane  of  consciousness. 
We  think  about  it;  and,  in  our  strange  new 
power  of  voluntary  action,  do  things  to  it. 
We  have  done  strange  tilings  to  the  family; 
or,  more  specifically,  men  have. 

Balsac,  at  his  bitterest,  observed, 
"Woman's  virtue  is  man's  best  invention." 
Balsac  was  wrong.  Virtue — the  unswerving 
devotion  to  one  mate — is  common  among 
birds  and  some  of  the  higher  mammals.  If 
Balsac  meant  celibacy  when  he  said  virtue, 
why  that  is  one  of  man's  inventions — though 
hardly  his  best. 

What  man  has  done  to  the  family,  speak- 
ing broadly,  is  to  change  it  from  an  institu- 
tion for  the  best  service  of  the  child  to  one 
modified  to  his  own  service,  the  vehicle  of 
his  comfort,  power  and  pride. 

Among  the  heavy  millions  of  the  unstirred 


28  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

East,  a  child — necessarily  a  male  child — is 
desired  for  the  credit  and  glory  of  the  father, 
and  his  fathers;  in  place  of  seeing  that  all 
a  parent  is  for  is  the  best  service  of  the  child. 
Ancestor  worship,  that  gross  reversal  of  all 
natural  law,  is  of  wholly  androcentric  origin. 
It  is  strongest  among  old  patriarchal  races; 
lingers  on  in  feudal  Europe;  is  to  be  traced 
even  in  America  to-day  in  a  few  sporadic 
efforts  to  magnify  the  deeds  of  our  an- 
cestors. 

The  best  thing  any  of  us  can  do  for  our 
ancestors  is  to  be  better  than  they  were ;  and 
we  ought  to  give  our  minds  to  it.  When  we 
use  our  past  merely  as  a  guide-book,  and 
concentrate  our  noble  emotions  on  the  pres- 
ent and  future,  we  shall  improve  more 
rapidly. 

The  peculiar  changes  brought  about  in 
family  life  by  the  predominance  of  the  male 
are  easily  traced.  In  these  studies  we  must 
keep  clearly  in  mind  the  basic  masculine 
characteristics:  desire,  combat,  self-expres- 
sion; all  legitimate  and  right  in  proper  use, 
only  mischievous  when  excessive  or  out  of 
place.     Through  them  the  male  is  led  to 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  29 

strenuous  competition  for  the  favor  of  the 
female;  in  the  overflowing  ardour  of  song, 
as  in  nightingale  and  tom-cat;  in  wasteful 
splendor  of  personal  decoration,  from  the 
pheasant's  breast  to  an  embroidered  waist- 
coat; and  in  direct  struggle  for  the  prize, 
from  the  stag's  locked  horns  to  the  clashing 
spears  of  the  tournament. 

It  is  earnestly  hoped  that  no  reader  will 
take  offence  at  the  necessarily  frequent  ref- 
erence to  these  essential  features  of  male- 
ness.  In  the  many  books  about  women  it  is, 
naturally,  their  femaleness  that  has  been 
studied  and  enlarged  upon.  And  though 
women,  after  thousands  of  years  of  such 
discussion,  have  become  a  little  restive  under 
the  constant  use  of  the  word  female:  men, 
as  rational  beings,  should  not  object  to  an 
analogous  study — at  least  not  for  some  time 
— a  few  centuries  or  so. 

How,  then,  do  we  find  these  masculine 
tendencies,  desire,  combat  and  self-expres- 
sion, affect  the  home  and  family  when  given 
too  much  power? 

First  comes  the  effect  in  the  preliminary 
work  of  selection.     One  of  the  most  uplift- 


30  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

ing  forces  of  nature  is  that  of  sex  selection. 
The  males,  numerous,  varied,  pouring  a 
flood  of  energy  into  wide  modifications, 
compete  for  the  female,  and  she  selects  the 
victor ;  thus  securing  to  the  race  the  new  im- 
provements. 

In  forming  the  proprietary  family  there 
is  no  such  competition,  no  such  selection. 
The  man,  by  violence  or  by  purchase,  does 
the  choosing — he  selects  the  kind  of  woman 
that  pleases  him.  Nature  did  not  intend  him 
to  select;  he  is  not  good  at  it.  Neither  was 
the  female  intended  to  compete — she  is  not 
good  at  it. 

If  there  is  a  race  between  males  for  a  mate 
— the  swiftest  gets  her  first ;  but  if  one  male 
is  chasing  a  number  of  females  he  gets  the 
slowest  first.  The  one  method  improves  our 
speed :  the  other  does  not.  If  males  struggle 
and  fight  with  one  another  for  a  mate,  the 
strongest  secures  her;  if  the  male  struggles 
and  fights  with  the  female  (a  peculiar  and 
unnatural  horror,  known  only  among  hu- 
man beings),  he  most  readily  secures  the 
weakest.  The  one  method  improves  our 
strength — the  other  does  not. 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  31 

When  women  became  the  property  of 
men;  sold  and  bartered;  "given  away"  by 
their  paternal  owner  to  their  marital  owner ; 
they  lost  this  prerogative  of  the  female,  this 
primal  duty  of  selection.  The  males  were 
no  longer  improved  by  their  natural  com- 
petition for  the  female ;  and  the  females  were 
not  improved;  because  the  male  did  not  se- 
lect for  points  of  racial  superiority,  but  for 
such  qualities  as  pleased  him. 

There  is  a  locality  in  northern  Africa, 
where  young  girls  are  deliberately  fed  with 
a  certain  oily  seed,  to  make  them  fat, — that 
they  may  be  the  more  readily  married, — as 
the  men  like  fat  wives.  Among  certain  more 
savage  African  tribes  the  chief's  wives  are 
prepared  for  him  by  being  kept  in  small 
dark  huts  and  fed  on  "mealies"  and  mo- 
lasses; precisely  as  a  Strasbourg  goose  is 
fattened  for  the  gourmand.  Now  fatness  is 
not  a  desirable  race  characteristic;  it  does 
not  add  to  the  woman's  happiness  of  effi- 
ciency; or  to  the  child's;  it  is  merely  an  ac- 
cessory pleasant  to  the  master;  his  attitude 
being  much  as  the  amorous  monad  ecstati- 


32  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

cally  puts  it,  in  Sill's  quaint  poem,  "Five 
Lives," 

"O  the  little  female  monad's  lips  ! 
O  the  little  female  monad's  eyes ! 
O  the  little,  little,  female,  female  monad !" 

This  ultra  littleness  and  ultra  femaleness 
has  been  demanded  and  produced  by  our 
Androcentric  Culture. 

Following  this,  and  part  of  it,  comes  the 
effect  on  motherhood.  This  function  was 
the  original  and  legitimate  base  of  family 
life;  and  its  ample  sustaining  power 
throughout  the  long  early  period  of  "the 
mother-right;"  or  as  we  call  it,  the  matri- 
archate ;  the  father  being  her  assistant  in  the 
great  work.  The  patriarchate,  with  its  pro- 
prietary family,  changed  this  altogether ;  the 
woman,  as  the  property  of  the  man,  was  con- 
sidered first  and  foremost  as  a  means  of 
pleasure  to  him;  and  while  she  was  still 
valued  as  a  mother,  it  was  in  a  tributary  ca- 
pacity. Her  children  were  now  his;  his 
property,  as  she  was;  the  whole  enginery  of 
the  family  was  turned  from  its  true  use  to 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  33 

this  new  one,  hitherto  unknown,  the  service 
of  the  adult  male. 

To  this  day  we  are  living  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  proprietary  family.  The  duty 
of  the  wife  is  held  to  involve  man-service  as 
well  as  child-service;  and  indeed  far  more; 
as  the  duty  of  the  wife  to  the  husband  quite 
transcends  the  duty  of  the  mother  to  the 
child. 

See  for  instance  the  English  wife  staying 
with  her  husband  in  India  and  sending  the 
children  home  to  be  brought  up;  because 
India  is  bad  for  children  See  our  common 
law  that  the  man  decides  the  place  of  resi- 
dence; if  the  wife  refuses  to  go  with  him  to 
howsoever  unfit  a  place  for  her  and  for  the 
little  ones,  such  refusal  on  her  part  consti- 
tutes "desertion"  and  is  ground  for  divorce. 

See  again  the  idea  that  the  wife  must  re- 
main with  the  husband  though  a  drunkard, 
or  diseased;  regardless  of  the  sin  against  the 
child  involved  in  such  a  relation.  Public 
feeling  on  these  matters  is  indeed  changing; 
but  as  a  whole  the  ideals  of  the  man-made 
family  still  obtain. 

The  effect  of  this  on  the  woman  has  been 


34  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

inevitably  to  weaken  and  over-shadow  her 
sense  of  the  real  purpose  of  the  family;  of 
the  relentless  responsibilities  of  her  duty  as 
a  mother.  She  is  first  taught  duty  to  her 
parents,  with  heavy  religious  sanction;  and 
then  duty  to  her  husband,  similarly  but- 
tressed ;  but  her  duty  to  her  children  has  been 
left  to  instinct.  She  is  not  taught  in  girl- 
hood as  to  her  preeminent  power  and  duty 
as  a  mother;  her  young  ideals  are  all  of  de- 
votion to  the  lover  and  husband,  with  only 
the  vaguest  sense  of  results. 

The  young  girl  is  reared  in  what  we  call 
''innocence";  poetically  described  as 
"bloom";  and  this  condition  is  held  to  be 
one  of  her  chief  "charms."  The  requisite 
is  wholly  androcentric.  This  "innocence" 
does  not  enable  her  to  choose  a  husband 
wisely;  she  does  not  even  know  the  dangers 
that  possibly  confront  her.  We  vaguely 
imagine  that  her  father  or  brother,  who  do 
know,  will  protect  her.  Unfortunately  the 
father  and  brother,  under  our  current 
"double  standard"  of  morality,  do  not  judge 
the  applicants  as  she  would  if  she  knew  the 
nature  of  their  offenses. 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  35 

Furthermore,  if  her  heart  is  set  on  one  of 
them,  no  amount  of  general  advice  and  op- 
position serves  to  prevent  her  marrying  him. 
"I  love  him!"  she  says,  sublimely.  "I  do  not 
care  what  he  has  done.  I  will  forgive  liim. 
I  will  save  him!" 

This  state  of  mind  serves  to  forward  the 
interests  of  the  lover,  but  is  of  no  advantage 
to  the  children.  We  have  magnified  the 
duties  of  the  wife,  and  minified  the  duties 
of  the  mother;  and  this  is  inevitable  in  a 
family  relation  every  law  and  custom  of 
which  is  arranged  from  the  masculine  view- 
point. 

From  this  same  viewpoint,  equally  essen- 
tial to  the  proprietary  family,  comes  the  re- 
quirement that  the  woman  shall  serve  the 
man.  Her  service  is  not  that  of  the  associate 
and  equal,  as  when  she  joins  him  in  his  busi- 
ness. It  is  not  that  of  a  beneficial  combina- 
tion, as  when  she  practices  another  business 
and  they  share  the  profits ;  it  is  not  even  that 
of  the  specialist,  as  the  service  of  a  tailor  or 
barber ;  it  is  personal  service — the  work  of  a 
servant. 

In  large  generalization,  the  women  of  the 


36  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

world  cook  and  wash,  sweep  and  dust,  sew 
and  mend,  for  the  men. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  this  relation; 
have  held  it  for  so  long  to  be  the  "natural" 
relation,  that  it  is  difficult  indeed  to  show 
it  to  be  distinctly  unnatural  and  injurious. 
The  father  expects  to  be  served  by  the 
daughter,  a  service  quite  different  from  what 
he  expects  of  the  son.  This  shows  at  once 
that  such  service  is  no  integral  part  of 
motherhood,  or  even  of  marriage ;  but  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  proper  industrial  position  of 
women,  as  such. 

Why  is  this  so?  Why,  on  the  face  of  it, 
given  a  daughter  and  a  son,  should  a  form  of 
service  be  expected  of  the  one,  which  would 
be  considered  ignominious  by  the  other? 

The  underlying  reason  is  this.  Industry, 
at  its  base,  is  a  feminine  function.  The  sur- 
plus energy  of  the  mother  does  not  manifest 
itself  in  noise,  or  combat,  or  display,  but  in 
productive  industry.  Because  of  her 
mother-power  she  became  the  first  inventor 
and  laborer;  being  in  truth  the  mother  of  all 
industry  as  well  as  all  people. 

Man's  entrance  upon  industry  is  late  and 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  37 

reluctant;  as  will  be  shown  later  in  treating 
his  effect  on  economics.  In  this  field  of  fam- 
ily life,  his  effect  was  as  follows : 

Establishing  the  proprietary  family  at  an 
age  when  the  industry  was  primitive  and 
domestic;  and  thereafter  confining  the 
woman  solely  to  the  domestic  area,  he 
thereby  confined  her  to  primitive  industry. 
The  domestic  industries,  in  the  hands  of 
women,  constitute  a  survival  of  our  remotest 
past.  Such  work  was  "woman's  work"  as 
was  all  the  work  then  known;  such  work  is 
still  considered  woman's  work  because  they 
have  been  prevented  from  doing  any  other. 

The  term  "domestic  industry"  does  not 
define  a  certain  kind  of  labor,  but  a  certain 
grade  of  labor.  Architecture  was  a  domestic 
industry  once — when  every  savage  mother 
set  up  her  own  tepee.  To  be  confined  to 
domestic  industry  is  no  proper  distinction 
of  womanhood;  it  is  an  historic  distinction, 
an  economic  distinction,  it  sets  a  date  and 
limit  to  woman's  industrial  progress. 

In  this  respect  the  man-made  family  has 
resulted  in  arresting  the  development  of  half 
the  world.    We  have  a  world  wherein  men, 


38  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

industrially,  live  in  the  twentieth  century; 
and  women,  industrially,  live  in  the  first — 
and  back  of  it. 

To  the  same  source  we  trace  the  social 
and  educational  limitations  set  about  women. 
The  dominant  male,  holding  his  women  as 
property,  and  fiercely  jealous  of  them,  con- 
sidering them  always  as  his,  not  belonging 
to  themselves,  their  children,  or  the  world; 
has  hedged  them  in  with  restrictions  of  a 
thousand  sorts;  physical,  as  in  the  crippled 
Chinese  lady  or  the  imprisoned  odalisque; 
moral,  as  in  the  oppressive  doctrines  of  sub- 
mission taught  by  all  our  androcentric  re- 
ligions ;  mental,  as  in  the  enforced  ignorance 
from  which  women  are  now  so  swiftly 
emerging. 

This  abnormal  restriction  of  women  has 
necessarily  injured  motherhood.  The  man, 
free,  growing  in  the  world's  growth,  has 
mounted  with  the  centuries,  filling  an  ever 
wider  range  of  world  activities.  The 
woman,  bound,  has  not  so  grown;  and  the 
child  is  born  to  a  progressive  fatherhood  and 
a  stationary  motherhood.  Thus  the  man- 
made  family  reacts  unfavorably  upon  the 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  39 

child.  We  rob  our  children  of  half  their 
social  heredity  by  keeping  the  mother  in 
an  inferior  position;  however  legalized,  hal- 
lowed, or  ossified  by  time,  the  position  of 
domestic  servant  is  inferior. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  child  culture  is 
at  so  low  a  level,  and  for  the  most  part  ut- 
terly unknown.  To-day,  when  the  forces  of 
education  are  steadily  working  nearer  to  the 
cradle,  a  new  sense  is  wakening  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  period  of  infancy,  and  its 
wiser  treatment ;  yet  those  who  know  of  such 
a  movement  are  few,  and  of  them  some  are 
content  to  earn  easy  praise — and  pay — by 
belittling  right  progress  to  gratify  the  preju- 
dices of  the  ignorant. 

The  whole  position  is  simple  and  clear; 
and  easily  traceable  to  its  root.  Given  a 
proprietary  family,  where  the  man  holds 
the  woman  primarily  for  his  satisfaction  and 
service — then  necessarily  he  shuts  her  up 
and  keeps  her  for  these  purposes.  Being  so 
kept,  she  cannot  develop  humanly,  as  he  has, 
through  social  contact,  social  service,  true 
social  life.  (We  may  note  in  passing,  her 
passionate    fondness    for    the    child-game 


40  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

called  "society"  she  has  been  allowed  to  en- 
tertain herself  withal;  that  poor  simiacrum 
of  real  social  life,  in  which  people  decorate 
themselves  and  madly  crowd  together,  chat- 
tering, for  what  is  called  "entertainment.") 
Thus  checked  in  social  development,  we  have 
but  a  low  grade  motherhood  to  offer  our 
children;  and  the  children,  reared  in  the 
primitive  conditions  thus  artificially  main- 
tained, enter  life  with  a  false  perspective, 
not  only  toward  men  and  women,  but  toward 
life  as  a  whole. 

The  child  should  receive  in  the  family,  full 
preparation  for  his  relation  to  the  world  at 
large.  His  whole  life  must  be  spent  in  the 
world,  serving  it  well  or  ill ;  and  youth  is  the 
time  to  learn  how.  But  the  androcentric 
home  cannot  teach  him.  We  live  to-day  in 
a  democracy — the  man-made  family  is  a 
despotism.  It  may  be  a  weak  one;  the 
despot  may  be  dethroned  and  overmastered 
by  his  little  harem  of  one;  but  in  that  case 
she  becomes  the  despot — that  is  all.  The 
male  is  esteemed  "the  head  of  the  family"; 
it  belongs  to  him;  he  maintains  it;  and  the 
rest  of  the  world  is  a  wide  hunting  ground 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  41 

and  battlefield  wherein  he  competes  with 
other  males  as  of  old. 

The  girl-child,  peering  out,  sees  this  for- 
bidden field  as  belonging  wholly  to  men- 
kind;  and  her  relation  to  it  is  to  secure  one 
for  herself — not  only  that  she  may  love,  but 
that  she  may  live.  He  will  feed,  clothe  and 
adorn  her — she  will  serve  him ;  from  the  sub- 
jection  of  the  daughter  to  that  of  the  wife 
she  steps;  from  one  home  to  the  other,  and 
never  enters  the  world  at  all — man's  world. 

The  boy,  on  the  other  hand,  considers  the 
home  as  a  place  of  women,  an  inferior  place, 
and  longs  to  grow  up  and  leave  it — for  the 
real  world.  He  is  quite  right.  The  error 
is  that  this  great  social  instinct,  calling  for 
full  social  exercise,  exchange,  service,  is  con- 
sidered masculine,  whereas  it  is  human,  and 
belongs  to  boy  and  girl  alike. 

The  child  is  affected  first  through  the  re- 
tarded development  of  his  mother,  then 
through  the  arrested  conditions  of  home  in- 
dustry; and  further  through  the  wrong 
ideals  which  have  arisen  from  these  condi- 
tions.   A  normal  home,  where  there  was  hu- 


42  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

man  equality  between  mother  and  father, 
would  have  a  better  influence. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  effect  of  the 
proprietary  family  on  the  proprietor  him- 
self. 

He,  too,  has  been  held  back  somewhat 
by  this  reactionary  force.  In  the  process  of 
becoming  human  we  must  learn  to  recognize 
justice,  freedom,  human  rights;  we  must 
learn  self-control  and  to  think  of  others; 
have  minds  that  grow  and  broaden  ration- 
ally; we  must  learn  the  broad  mutual  inter- 
service  and  unbounded  joy  of  social  inter- 
course and  service.  The  pretty  despot  of 
the  man-made  home  is  hindered  in  his  hu- 
manness  by  too  much  manness. 

For  each  man  to  have  one  whole  woman 
to  cook  for  and  wait  upon  him  is  a  poor 
education  for  democracy.  The  boy  with  a 
servile  mother,  the  man  with  a  servile  wife, 
cannot  reach  the  sense  of  equal  rights  we 
need  to-day.  Too  constant  consideration  of 
the  master's  tastes  makes  the  master  selfish; 
and  the  assault  upon  his  heart  direct,  or 
through  that  proverbial  side-avenue,  the 
stomach,  which  the  dependent  woman  needs 


THE  MAN-MADE  FAMILY  43 

must  make  when  she  wants  anything,  is  bad 
for  the  man,  as  well  as  for  her. 

We  are  slowly  forming  a  nobler  type  of 
family;  the  union  of  two,  based  on  love  and 
recognized  by  law,  maintained  because  of  its 
happiness  and  use.  We  are  even  now  ap- 
proaching a  tenderness  and  permanence  of 
love,  high  pure  enduring  love;  combined 
with  the  broad  deep-rooted  friendliness  and 
comradeship  of  equals;  which  promises  us 
more  happiness  in  marriage  than  we  have 
yet  known.  It  will  be  good  for  all  the  par- 
ties concerned — man,  woman  and  child;  and 
promote  our  general  social  progress  ad- 
mirably. 

If  it  needs  "a  head"  it  will  elect  a  chair- 
man pro  tern.  Friendship  does  not  need 
"a  head."  Love  does  not  need  "a  head." 
Why  should  a  family? 


44  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  III 

HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY 

AMONG  the  many  paradoxes  which 
we  find  in  human  life  is  our  low 
average  standard  of  health  and 
beauty,  compared  with  our  power  and 
knowledge.  All  creatures  suffer  from  con- 
flict with  the  elements;  from  enemies  with- 
out and  within — the  prowling  devourers  of 
the  forest,  and  "the  terror  that  walketh  in 
darkness"  and  attacks  the  body  from  inside, 
in  hidden  millions. 

Among  wild  animals  generally,  there  is  a 
certain  standard  of  excellence;  if  you  shoot 
a  bear  or  a  bird  it  is  a  fair  sample  of  the 
species;  you  do  not  say,  "O  what  an  ugly 
one!"  or  "This  must  have  been  an  invalid!" 
Where  we  have  domesticated  any  animal, 
and  interfered  with  its  natural  habits,  illness 
has  followed;  the  dog  is  said  to  have  the  most 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  45 

diseases  second  to  man;  the  horse  comes 
next;  but  the  wild  ones  put  us  to  shame  by 
their  superior  health  and  the  beauty  that  be- 
longs to  right  development. 

In  our  long  ages  of  blind  infancy  we  as- 
sume that  sickness  was  a  visitation  from  the 
gods;  some  still  believe  this,  holding  it  to 
be  a  special  perogative  of  divinity  to  afflict 
us  in  this  way.  We  speak  of  "the  ills  that 
flesh  is  heir  to"  as  if  the  inheritance  was  en- 
tailed and  inalienable.  Only  of  late  years, 
after  much  study  and  long  struggle  with  this 
old  belief  which  made  us  submit  to  sickness 
as  a  blow  from  the  hand  of  God,  we  are  be- 
ginning to  learn  something  of  the  many 
causes  of  our  many  diseases,  and  how  to 
remove  some  of  them. 

It  is  still  true,  however,  that  almost  every 
one  of  us  is  to  some  degree  abnormal;  the 
features  asymmetrical,  the  vision  defective, 
the  digestion  unreliable,  the  nervous  system 
erratic — we  are  but  a  job  lot  even  in  what 
we  call  "good  health";  and  are  subject  to 
a  burden  of  pain  and  premature  death  that 
would  make  life  hideous  if  it  were  not  so 
ridiculously  unnecessary. 


46  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

As  to  beauty — we  do  not  think  of  ex- 
pecting it  save  in  the  rarely  exceptional  case. 
Look  at  the  faces — the  figures — in  any 
crowd  you  meet;  compare  the  average  man 
or  the  average  woman  with  the  normal  type 
of  human  beauty  as  given  us  in  picture  and 
statue;  and  consider  if  there  is  not  some 
general  cause  for  so  general  a  condition  of 
ugliness. 

Moreover,  leaving  our  defective  bodies 
concealed  by  garments;  what  are  those  gar- 
ments, as  conducive  to  health  and  beauty? 
Is  the  practical  ugliness  of  our  men's  attire, 
and  the  impractical  absurdity  of  our  wo- 
men's, any  contribution  to  human  beauty? 
Look  at  our  houses — are  they  beautiful? 
Even  the  houses  of  the  rich? 

We  do  not  even  know  that  we  ought  to 
live  in  a  world  of  overflowing  loveliness ;  and 
that  our  contribution  to  it  should  be  the 
loveliest  of  all.  We  are  so  sodden  in  the  dull 
ugliness  of  our  interiors,  so  used  to  calling 
a  tame  weary  low-toned  color  scheme  "good 
taste,"  that  only  children  dare  frankly  yearn 
for  Beauty — and  they  are  speedily  educated 
out  of  it. 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  47 

The  reasons  specially  given  for  our  low 
standards  of  health  and  beauty  are  ignor- 
ance, poverty,  and  the  evil  effects  of  special 
trades.  The  Man  with  the  Hoe  becomes 
brother  to  the  ox  because  of  over-much  hoe- 
ing; the  housepainter  is  lead-poisoned  be- 
cause of  his  painting;  books  have  been  writ- 
ten to  show  the  injurious  influence  of  nearly 
all  our  industries  upon  workers. 

These  causes  are  sound  as  far  as  they  go ; 
but  do  not  cover  the  whole  ground. 

The  farmer  may  be  muscle-bound  and 
stooping  from  his  labor;  but  that  does  not 
account  for  his  dyspepsia  or  his  rheumatism. 

Then  we  allege  poverty  as  covering  all. 
Poverty  does  cover  a  good  deal.  But  when 
we  find  even  a  half-fed  savage  better  devel- 
oped than  a  well  paid  cashier;  and  a  poor 
peasant  woman  a  more  vigorous  mother  than 
the  idle  wife  of  a  rich  man,  poverty  is  not 
enough. 

Then  we  say  ignorance  explains  it.  But 
there  are  most  learned  professors  who  are 
ugly  and  asthmathic;  there  are  even  doctors 
who  can  boast  no  beauty  and  but  moderate 
health;  there  are  some  of  the  petted  children 


48  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

of  the  wealthy,  upon  whom  every  care  is 
lavished  from  birth,  and  who  still  are  ill  to 
look  at  and  worse  to  marry. 

All  these  special  causes  are  admitted, 
given  their  due  share  in  lowering  our 
standards,  but  there  is  another  far  more  uni- 
versal in  its  application  and  its  effects.  Let 
us  look  back  on  our  little  ancestors  the 
beasts,  and  see  what  keeps  them  so  true  to 
type. 

The  type  itself  set  by  that  balance  of  con- 
ditions and  forces  we  call  "natural  selection." 
As  the  environment  changes  they  must  be 
adapted  to  it,  if  they  cannot  so  adapt  them- 
selves they  die.  Those  who  live  are,  by  liv- 
ing, proven  capable  of  maintaining  them- 
selves. Every  creature  which  has  remained 
on  earth,  while  so  many  less  effective  kinds 
die  out,  remains  as  a  conqueror.  The  speed 
of  the  deer — the  constant  use  of  speed — is 
what  keeps  it  alive  and  makes  it  healthy  and 
beautiful.  The  varied  activities  of  the  life 
of  a  leopard  are  what  have  developed  the 
sinuous  gracile  strength  we  so  admire.  It 
is  what  the  creature  does  for  its  living,  its 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  49 

daily  life-long  exercise  which  makes  it  what 
it  is. 

But  there  is  another  great  natural  force 
which  works  steadily  to  keep  all  animals  up 
to  the  race  standard ;  that  is  sexual  selection. 
Throughout  nature  the  male  is  the  variant, 
as  we  have  already  noted.  His  energy  finds 
vent  not  only  in  that  profuse  output  of  deco- 
rative appendages  Ward  defines  as  "mascu- 
line efforescence"  but  in  variations  not  deco- 
rative, not  useful  or  desirable  at  all. 

The  female,  on  the  other  hand,  varies 
much  less,  remaining  nearer  the  race  type; 
and  her  function  is  to  select  among  these 
varying  males  the  specimens  most  valuable 
to  the  race.  In  the  intense  masculine  com- 
petition the  victor  must  necessarily  be 
stronger  than  his  fellows;  he  is  first  proven 
equal  to  his  environment  by  having  lived  to 
grow  up,  then  more  than  equal  to  his  fellows 
by  overcoming  them.  This  higher  grade  of 
selection  also  develops  not  only  the  charac- 
teristics necessary  to  make  a  living;  but  sec- 
ondary ones,  often  of  a  purely  aesthetic  na- 
ture, which  make  much  of  what  we  call 
beauty.    Between  the  two,  all  who  live  must 


50  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

be  up  to  a  certain  grade,  and  those  who  be- 
come parents  must  be  above  it;  a  masterly 
arrangement  surely! 

Here  is  where,  during  the  period  of  our 
human  history,  we  in  our  newborn  conscious- 
ness and  imperfect  knowledge,  have  griev- 
ously interfered  with  the  laws  of  nature. 
The  ancient  proprietary  family,  treating  the 
woman  as  a  slave,  keeping  her  a  prisoner 
and  subject  to  the  will  of  her  master,  cut 
her  off  at  once  from  the  exercise  of  those 
activities  which  alone  develop  and  maintain 
the  race  type. 

Take  the  one  simple  quality  of  speed.  We 
are  a  creature  built  for  speed,  a  free  swift 
graceful  animal;  and  among  savages  this  is 
still  seen — the  capacity  for  running,  mile 
after  mile,  hour  after  hour.  Running  is  as 
natural  a  gait  for  genus  homo  as  for  genus 
cervus.  Now  suppose  among  deer,  the  doe 
was  prohibited  from  running;  the  stag  con- 
tinuing free  on  the  mountain;  the  doe  living 
in  caves  and  pens,  unequal  to  any  exercise. 
The  effect  on  the  species  would  be,  in- 
evitably, to  reduce  its  speed. 

In  this  way,  by  keeping  women  to  one 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  51 

small  range  of  duties,  and  in  most  cases 
housebound,  we  have  interfered  with  natural 
selection  and  its  resultant  health  and  beauty. 
It  can  easily  be  seen  what  the  effect  on  the 
race  would  have  been  if  all  men  had  been 
veiled  and  swathed,  hidden  in  harems,  kept 
to  the  tent  or  house,  and  confined  to  the  ac- 
tivities of  a  house-servant.  Our  stalwart  la- 
borers, our  proud  soldiers,  our  athletes, 
would  never  have  appeared  under  such  cir- 
cumstances. The  confinement  to  the  house 
alone,  cutting  women  off  from  sunshine  and 
air,  is  by  itself  an  injury;  and  the  range  of 
occupation  allowed  them  is  not  such  as  to 
develop  a  high  standard  of  either  health  or 
beauty.  Thus  we  have  cut  off  half  the  race 
from  the  strengthening  influence  of  natural 
selection,  and  so  lowered  our  race  standards 
in  large  degree. 

This  alone,  however,  would  not  have  had 
such  mischievous  effects  but  for  our  further 
blunder  in  completely  reversing  nature's  or- 
der of  sexual  selection.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  even  under  confinement  and  restriction 
women  could  have  kept  up  the  race  level, 
passably,  through  this  great  function  of  se- 


52  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

lection;  but  here  is  the  great  fundamental 
error  of  the  Androcentric  Culture.  Assum- 
ing to  be  the  possessor  of  women,  their 
owner  and  master,  able  at  will  to  give,  buy 
and  sell,  or  do  with  as  he  pleases,  man 
became  the  selector. 

It  seems  a  simple  change;  and  in  those 
early  days,  wholly  ignorant  of  natural  laws, 
there  was  no  suspicion  that  any  mischief 
would  result.  In  the  light  of  modern  knowl- 
edge, however,  the  case  is  clear.  The  woman 
was  deprived  of  the  beneficent  action  of 
natural  selection,  and  the  man  was  then,  by 
his  own  act  freed  from  the  stern  but  ele- 
vating effect  of  sexual  selection.  Nothing 
was  required  of  the  woman  by  natural  se- 
lection save  such  capacity  as  should  please 
her  master ;  nothing  was  required  of  the  man 
by  sexual  selection  save  power  to  take  by 
force,  or  buy,  a  woman. 

It  does  not  take  a  very  high  standard  of 
feminine  intelligence,  strength,  skill,  health, 
or  beauty  to  be  a  houseservant,  or  even  a 
housekeeper;  witness  the  average. 

It  does  not  take  a  very  high  standard  of 
masculine  intelligence,  strength,  skill,  health 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  53 

or  beauty  to  maintain  a  woman  in  that  ca- 
pacity— witness  the  average. 

Here  at  the  very  root  of  our  physiological 
process,  at  the  beginning  of  life,  we  have 
perverted  the  order  of  nature,  and  are  suf- 
fering the  consequences. 

It  has  been  held  by  some  that  man  as  the 
selector  has  developed  beauty,  more  beauty 
than  we  had  before;  and  we  point  to  the 
charms  of  our  women  as  compared  with 
those  of  the  squaw.  The  first  answer  to  this 
is  that  the  squaw  belongs  to  a  decadent  race ; 
that  she  too  is  subject  to  the  man,  that  the 
comparison  to  have  weight  should  be  made 
between  our  women  and  the  women  of  the 
matriarchate — an  obvious  impossibility.  We 
have  not  on  earth  women  in  a  state  of  nor- 
mal freedom  and  full  development;  but  we 
have  enough  difference  in  their  placing  to 
learn  that  human  strength  and  beauty 
grows  with  woman's  freedom  and  activity. 

The  second  answer  is  that  much  of  what 
man  calls  beauty  in  woman  is  not  human 
beauty  at  all,  but  gross  overdevelopment  of 
certain  points  which  appeal  to  him  as  a  male. 
The  excessive  fatness,   previously  referred 


54  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

to,  is  a  case  in  point;  that  being  considered 
beauty  in  a  woman  which  is  in  reality  an 
element  of  weakness,  inefficiency  and  ill- 
health.  The  relatively  small  size  of  women, 
deliberately  preferred,  steadfastly  chosen, 
and  so  built  into  the  race,  is  a  blow  at  real 
human  progress  in  every  particular.  In  our 
upward  journey  we  should  and  do  grow 
larger,  leaving  far  behind  us  our  dwarfish 
progenitors.  Yet  the  male,  in  his  unnatural 
position  as  selector,  preferring  for  reasons 
both  practical  and  sentimental,  to  have  "his 
woman"  smaller  than  himself,  has  deliber- 
ately striven  to  lower  the  standard  of  size 
in  the  race.  We  used  to  read  in  the  novels 
of  the  last  generation,  "He  was  a  magnifi- 
cent specimen  of  manhood" — "Her  golden 
head  reached  scarcely  to  his  shoulder" — 
"She  was  a  fairy  creatine — the  tiniest  of  her 
sex."  Thus  we  have  mated,  and  yet  ex- 
pected that  by  some  hocus  pocus  the  boys 
would  all  "take  after  their  father,"  and  the 
girls,  their  mother.  In  his  efforts  to  im- 
prove the  breed  of  other  animals,  man  has 
never  tried  to  deliberately  cross  the  large 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  55 

and  small  and  expect  to  keep  up  the 
standard  of  size. 

As  a  male  he  is  appealed  to  by  the  ultra- 
feminine,  and  has  given  small  thought  to 
effects  on  the  race.  He  was  not  designed  to 
do  the  selecting.  Under  his  fostering  care 
we  have  bred  a  race  of  women  who  are 
physically  weak  enough  to  be  handed  about 
like  invalids;  or  mentally  weak  enough  to 
pretend  they  are — and  to  like  it.  We  have 
made  women  who  respond  so  perfectly  to 
the  force  which  made  them,  that  they  attach 
all  their  idea  of  beauty  to  those  characteris- 
tics which  attract  men;  sometimes  humanly 
ugly  without  even  knowing  it. 

For  instance,  our  long  restriction  to 
house-limits,  the  heavy  limitations  of  our 
clothing,  and  the  heavier  ones  of  traditional 
decorum,  have  made  women  disproportion- 
ately short-legged.  This  is  a  particularly 
undignified  and  injurious  characteristic, 
bred  in  women  and  inherited  by  men,  most 
seen  among  those  races  which  keep  their 
women  most  closely.  Yet  when  one  woman 
escapes  the  tendency  and  appears  with  a 
normal  length  of  femur  and  tibia,  a  normal 


56  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

height  of  hip  and  shoulder,  she  is  criticized 
and  called  awkward  by  her  squatty  sisters! 

The  most  convenient  proof  of  the  inferior- 
ity of  women  in  human  beauty  is  shown  by 
those  composite  statues  prepared  by  Dr. 
Sargent  for  the  World's  Fair  of  '93.  These 
were  made  from  gymnasium  measurements 
of  thousands  of  young  collegians  of  both 
sexes  all  over  America.  The  statue  of  the 
girl  has  a  pretty  face,  small  hands  and  feet, 
rather  nice  arms,  though  weak;  but  the  legs 
are  too  thick  and  short;  the  chest  and 
shoulders  poor;  and  the  trunk  is  quite  piti- 
ful in  its  weakness.  The  figure  of  the  man 
is  much  better  proportioned. 

Thus  the  effect  on  human  beauty  of  mas- 
culine selection. 

Beyond  this  positive  deteriorative  effect 
on  women  through  man's  arbitrary  choice 
comes  the  negative  effect  of  woman's  lack 
of  choice.  Bought  or  stolen  or  given  by  her 
father,  she  was  deprived  of  the  innately 
feminine  right  and  duty  of  choosing.  "Who 
giveth  this  woman?"  we  still  inquire  in  our 
archaic  marriage  service,  and  one  man  steps 
forward  and  gives  her  to  another  man. 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  57 

Free,  the  female  chose  the  victor,  and  the 
vanquished  went  unmated — and  without 
progeny.  Dependent,  having  to  be  fed  and 
cared  for  by  some  man,  the  victors  take 
their  pick  perhaps,  but  the  vanquished  take 
what  is  left;  and  the  poor  women,  "marry- 
ing for  a  home,"  take  anything.  As  a  con- 
sequence the  inferior  male  is  as  free  to  trans- 
mit his  inferiority  as  the  superior  to  give 
better  qualities,  and  does  so — beyond  com- 
putation. In  modern  days,  women  are 
freer,  in  some  countries  freer  than  in  others ; 
here  in  modern  America  freest  of  all;  and 
the  result  is  seen  in  our  improving  standards 
of  health  and  beauty. 

Still  there  remains  the  field  of  inter-mas- 
culine competition,  does  there  not?  Do  not 
the  males  still  struggle  together?  Is  not 
that  as  of  old,  a  source  of  race  advantage? 

To  some  degree  it  is.  When  life  was  sim- 
ple and  our  activities  consisted  mainly  in 
fighting  and  hard  work ;  the  male  who  could 
vanquish  the  others  was  bigger  and  stronger. 
But  inter-masculine  competition  ceases  to  be 
of  such  advantage  when  we  enter  the  field 
of  social  service.     What  is  required  in  or- 


58  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

ganized  society  is  the  specialization  of  the 
individual,  the  development  of  special  tal- 
ents, not  always  of  immediate  benefit  to  the 
man  himself,  but  of  ultimate  benefit  to  so- 
ciety. The  best  social  servant,  progressive, 
meeting  future  needs,  is  almost  always  at  a 
disadvantage  beside  the  well-established 
lower  types.  We  need,  for  social  service, 
qualities  quite  different  from  the  simple 
masculine  characteristics — desire,  combat, 
self-expression. 

By  keeping  what  we  call  "the  outside 
world"  so  wholly  male,  we  keep  up  mascu- 
line standards  at  the  expense  of  human  ones. 
This  may  be  broadly  seen  in  the  slow  and 
painful  development  of  industry  and  sci- 
ence as  compared  to  the  easy  dominance  of 
warfare  throughout  all  history  until  our  own 
times. 

The  effect  of  all  this  ultra  masculine  com- 
petition upon  health  and  beauty  is  but  too 
plainly  to  be  seen.  Among  men  the  male 
idea  of  what  is  good  looking  is  accentuated 
beyond  reason.  Read  about  any  "hero"  you 
please;  or  study  the  products  of  the  illus- 
trator and  note  the  broad   shoulders,   the 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  59 

rugged  features,  the  strong,  square  de- 
termined jaw.  That  jaw  is  in  evidence  if 
everything  else  fails.  He  may  be  cross-eyed, 
wide-eared,  thick-necked,  bandy-legged — 
what  you  please;  but  he  must  have  a  more 
or  less  prognathous  jaw. 

Meanwhile  any  anthropologist  will  show 
you  that  the  line  of  human  development  is 
away  from  that  feature  of  the  bulldog  and 
the  alligator,  and  toward  the  measured  dig- 
nity of  the  Greek  type.  The  possession  of 
that  kind  of  jaw  may  enable  male  to  con- 
quer male,  but  does  not  make  him  of  any 
more  service  to  society;  of  any  better  health 
or  higher  beauty. 

Further,  in  the  external  decoration  of  our 
bodies,  what  is  the  influence  here  of  mascu- 
line dominance. 

We  have  before  spoken  of  the  peculiar 
position  of  our  race  in  that  the  woman  is  the 
only  female  creature  who  carries  the  burden 
of  sex  ornament.  This  amazing  reversal  of 
the  order  of  nature  results  at  its  mildest  in 
a  perversion  of  the  natural  feminine  in- 
stincts of  love  and  service,  and  an  appear- 
ance of  the  masculine  instincts  of  self-ex- 


60  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

pression  and  display.  Alone  among  all  fe- 
male tilings  do  women  decorate  and  preen 
themselves  and  exhibit  their  borrowed 
plumage  (literally!)  to  attract  the  favor  of 
the  male.  This  ignominy  is  forced  upon 
them  by  their  position  of  economic  depend- 
ence; and  their  general  helplessness.  As 
all  broader  life  is  made  to  depend,  for  them, 
on  whom  they  marry,  indeed  as  even  the  ne- 
cessities of  life  so  often  depend  on  their 
marrying  someone,  they  have  been  driven 
into  this  form  of  competition,  so  alien  to  the 
true  female  attitude. 

The  result  is  enough  to  make  angels  weep 
— and  laugh.  Perhaps  no  step  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  beauty  went  farther  than  our  human 
power  of  making  a  continuous  fabric;  soft 
and  mobile,  showing  any  color  and  texture 
desired.  The  beauty  of  the  human  body  is 
supreme,  and  when  we  add  to  it  the  flow  of 
color,  the  ripple  of  fluent  motion,  that  comes 
of  a  soft,  light  garment  over  free  limbs — 
it  is  a  new  field  of  loveliness  and  delight. 
Naturally  this  should  have  filled  the  whole 
world  with  a  new  pleasure.  Our  garments, 
first  under  right  natural  selection  develop- 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  61 

ing  perfect  use,  under  right  sex  selection  de- 
veloping beauty;  and  further,  as  our  human 
aesthetic  sense  progresses,  showing  a  noble 
symbolism;  would  have  been  an  added 
strength  and  glory,  a  ceaseless  joy. 

What  is  the  case? 

Men,  under  a  too  strictly  inter-masculine 
environment,  have  evolved  the  mainly  useful 
but  beautiless  costume  common  to-day;  and 
women — ? 

Women  wear  beautiful  garments  when 
they  happen  to  be  the  fashion;  and  ugly 
garments  when  they  are  the  fashion,  and 
show  no  signs  of  knowing  the  difference. 
They  show  no  added  pride  in  the  beautiful, 
no  hint  of  mortification  in  the  hideous,  and 
are  not  even  sensitive  under  criticism,  or 
open  to  any  persuasion  or  argument.  Why 
should  they  be? 

Their  condition,  physical  and  mental,  is 
largely  abnormal,  their  whole  passionate  ab- 
sorption in  dress  and  decoration  is  abnormal, 
and  they  have  never  looked,  from  a  frankly 
human  standpoint,  at  their  position  and  its 
peculiarities,  until  the  present  age. 

In  the  effect  of  our  wrong  relation  on  the 


62  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

world's  health,  we  have  spoken  of  the  check 
to  vigor  and  growth  due  to  the  housebound 
state  of  women  and  their  burdensome 
clothes.  There  follow  other  influences, 
similar  in  origin,  even  more  evil  in  result. 
To  roughly  and  briefly  classify  we  may  dis- 
tinguish the  diseases  due  to  bad  air,  to  bad 
food,  and  that  field  of  cruel  mischief  we  are 
only  now  beginning  to  discuss — the  diseases 
directly  due  to  the  erroneous  relation  be- 
tween men  and  women. 

We  are  the  only  race  where  the  female 
depends  on  the  male  for  a  livelihood.  We 
are  the  only  race  that  practices  prostitution. 
From  the  first  harmless-looking  but  ab- 
normal general  relation,  follows  the  well 
recognized  evil  of  the  second,  so  long  called 
"a  social  necessity,"  and  from  it,  in  deadly 
sequence,  comes  the  "wages  of  sin";  death 
not  only  of  the  guilty,  but  of  the  innocent. 
It  is  no  light  part  of  our  criticism  of  the 
Androcentric  Culture  that  a  society  based 
on  maeculine  desires  alone,  has  willingly  sac- 
rificed such  an  army  of  women;  and  has  re- 
paid the  sacrifice  by  the  heaviest  punish- 
ments. 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  63 

That  the  unfortunate  woman  should 
sicken  and  die  was  held  to  be  her  just  pun- 
ishment; that  man  too  should  bear  part  pen- 
alty was  found  unavoidable,  though  much 
legislation  and  medical  effort  has  been  spent 
to  shield  him;  but  to  the  further  conse- 
quences society  is  but  now  waking  up. 

Sheltered  by  the  customs  and  sanctions 
of  a  civilization  built  and  upheld  by  his  own 
sex,  man  has  brought  home  to  his  helpless 
and  innocent  family  the  "wages  of  sin" — 
and  paid  them  out  most  heavily.  We  are 
now  beginning  to  learn  what  a  percentage  of 
blindness,  of  epilepsy,  of  many  horrible 
forms  of  illness,  idiocy  and  deformity,  of 
sterility,  of  babies  never  born  alive,  or 
dying  in  their  cradles;  and  of  the  ruined 
health  of  wives,  their  subjection  to  surgical 
operation,  their  wretched  lives:— is  due  to 
this  terribly  frequent  offence.  When  a  more 
human  or  less  masculine  standard  of  living 
is  at  last  reached,  we  shall  see  these  matters 
in  their  true  light.  The  present  purpose  is 
not  to  pile  up  horrors,  nor  to  give  technical 
details;  but  to  point  out  that  this  enormous 


64  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

share  of  disease  and  degeneracy  is  directly 
traceable  to  our  Androcentric  Culture. 

It  is  inconceivable  that  a  civilization  even 
half  representing  women,  could  so  sin 
against  Mother  and  Child;  so  poison  the 
current  of  life  at  its  very  springs. 

No  heavier  single  charge  can  be  brought 
against  a  civilization  in  which  women  are 
dependent  upon  men  than  this;  that,  man, 
the  "natural  protector,"  has  not  only 
doomed  to  misery  and  ruin  so  large  a  num- 
ber of  the  protected;  blamed  and  punished 
in  them  what  he  did  not  blame  and  punish  in 
himself;  then  blamed  their  more  fortunate 
sisters  for  this  cruel  judgment;  and,  above 
all,  brought  to  the  innocent  and  trusting 
wife  and  the  helpless  child,  the  penalty  of 
his  misdeeds. 

Much  less  impressive,  but  more  wide 
spread  are  the  other  two  lines  in  which  our 
health  is  injured  by  this  too  masculine 
order.  Modern  therapeutics  is  now  learn- 
ing how  many  of  our  disorders  of  the  throat 
and  lungs  may  be  generally  classified  as 
"house-diseases. "  Certain  bacteria  flourish 
ceaselessly  in  the  dusty  heat  of  our  houses. 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  65 

The  more  people  are  shut  up  and  used  to 
breathing  impoverished  air,  the  less  able 
are  they  to  meet  natural  temperatures.  We 
become  acclimated  to  bad  air,  as  it  were,  and 
do  not  object,  in  church,  car,  theatre, 
crowded  store,  to  the  same  atmosphere  we 
are  used  to  in  our  houses.  Against  the  house 
habit  strives  the  new  knowledge  of  hygienist 
and  physician,  but  the  habit  is  older  and 
wider  than  the  knowledge,  and  we  as  a 
people  submit  our  lungs  to  a  degree  of  foul- 
ness, which  were  it  offered  in  food,  we  should 
repudiate  with  horror. 

Now  women  are  not  naturally  cave 
dwellers  any  more  than  men.  They  have 
been  confined  to  the  house  for  reasons 
quite  outside  the  needs  of  motherhood.  Only 
to-day,  within  a  lifetime,  are  we  at  last  re- 
learning  what  a  free  outdoor  life  can  do  for 
the  girl  as  well  as  the  boy,  a  lesson  lost  since 
Sparta  fell.  The  woman  should  compare 
in  size  and  vigor  with  the  man  as  the  lioness 
with  the  lion,  or  the  migrating  mother  stork 
with  her  mate.  A  house  life  is  not  good  for 
man,  woman,  or  child;  her  enforced  limita- 
tions react  on  him  and  on  their  little  ones. 


GG  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

Among  all  the  varied  unpleasantnesses 
known  to  the  doctor,  he  makes  least  prog- 
ress in  opposing  what  are  known  as  "food 
diseases."  We  suffer  enough  in  many  ways ; 
but  our  difficulties  with  "the  alimentary 
tract"  are  most  common  and  least  cured. 
Wise,  strong,  highly  civilized  are  we,  rich 
powerful,  somewhat  educated,  yet  from  the 
slowly  departing  teeth  to  the  rapidly  re- 
moved appendix  we  seem  helplessly  open 
to  disease.  Whatever  else  we  have  learned 
in  our  long  ascent,  we  have  not  learned  what, 
where  and  how  to  eat. 

It  is  most  singular. 

No  other  animal  has  such  difficulty  (ex- 
cept to  some  degree  the  ones  we  feed) .  To- 
day we  are  bringing  more  knowledge  to  bear 
on  this  subject,  we  are  trying  to  teach  bet- 
ter food  habits,  but  we  do  not  recognize  the 
constant  universal  cause  of  the  trouble, 
which  is  simply  this ;  that  every  man  has  one 
whole  woman  to  cook  for  him.  If  he  can 
afford  it,  he  has  more  than  one.  "The  way 
to  a  man's  heart  is  his  stomach,"  we  are  told; 
and  he  has  for  so  long  confounded  the  two 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  67 

that  the  words  "Wife"  and  "Cook"  are  al- 
most synonymous  to  him. 

The  dependent  woman  has  this  business 
of  cooking  as  the  one  main  way  in  which  to 
show  her  love,  to  fulfill  her  service;  and — 
alas!  secure  any  special  concessions  she  de- 
sires. 

"Tell  me  the  secret  of  married  happi- 
ness!" says  the  blooming  bride-to-be  to  the 
sweet-faced  grandmother.  And  that  placid 
dame  replies  with  unexpected  fervor, 
"Feed  the  brute!" 

The  point  here  suggested  is  that  this 
method  of  feeding  is  not  good  for  us.  It  is 
not  healthy  to  have  a  loving  servant  always 
ministering  to  one's  desires.  Less  devotion 
and  more  knowledge,  less  affection  and  a 
higher  grade  of  skill,  are  needed  in  this  great 
business  of  feeding  the  world.  We  cater  to 
the  appetite  continuously.  We  know  what 
John  likes ;  but  we  do  not  know  in  the  least 
what  the  various  chemicals  we  daily  present 
to  him  do  to  his  unhappy  inside.  Neither 
do  we  realize  that  this  constant  ministering 
service  to  the  personal  desires  of  men  in  the 
home  is  responsible,  to  a  terrible  extent,  for 


68  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

their  helpless  self-indulgence  in  the  world 
outside.  The  psychic  effect  of  "Mother's 
cooking"  is  a  thing  we  have  not  considered. 
No  art,  no  science,  no  business,  can  grow 
far  when  kept  to  a  domestic  level,  when 
the  product  of  labor  is  for  one  person  only, 
and  is  governed  not  by  knowledge  but  by 
desire.  The  wife-servant,  ministering  de- 
votedly to  her  lord,  has  not  served  his  best 
interests.  A  relation  that  is  wrong  at  its 
base  cannot  work  out  right  in  any  line. 

The  health  of  the  world  is  not  ensured  by 
making  women  the  servants  of  men. 

To-day  the  human  woman  and  the  human 
man  are  alike  able  to  discuss  transmitting 
deformity  and  disease  to  their  beloved  ones. 
A  new  moral  sense  is  called  for  here,  and  is 
slowly  appearing  among  us.  A  moral  sense 
that  shall  rate  the  mother's  responsibilty  in 
selecting  the  father  of  her  children,  and  in 
securing  to  them  a  pure  inheritance  in  con- 
stitution, far  higher  than  the  preservation 
of  the  hush-and-cover  policy  of  our  racial 
beginnings. 

Further  than  that  we  need  a  new  judg- 
ment upon  the  offenders  in   this   case;    not 


HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY  69 

merely  as  breakers  of  our  present  moral 
law,  not  merely  as  offenders  against  our 
social  canons — an  offense  so  light  and  fre- 
quent as  to  meet  small  rebuke;  but  as  plain 
criminals,  chargeable  with  poisoning,  may- 
hem and  murder. 

If  a  man  gives  his  wife  arsenic,  he  is  held 
criminally  responsible;  if  he  shoots  his  child, 
or  maims  Mm  with  an  axe.  Wherein  is  a 
man  less  guilty  who  knowingly  transmits 
disease  to  a  trusting  wife,  who  causes  blind- 
ness and  deformity  and  idiocy  in  his  chil- 
dren, whose  lightest  offense  is  to  bring  ster- 
ility and  merciful  death? 


70  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  IV 


MEN  AND  ART 


AMONG  the  many  counts  in  which 
women  have  been  proven  inferior 
to  men  in  human  development  is 
the  oft-heard  charge  that  there  are  no  great 
women  artists.  Where  one  or  two  are 
proudly  exhibited  in  evidence,  they  are 
either  pooh-poohed  as  not  very  great,  or 
held  to  be  the  trifling  exceptions  which  do 
but  prove  the  rule. 

Defenders  of  women  generally  make  the 
mistake  of  over-estimating  their  perform- 
ances, instead  of  accepting,  and  explaining, 
the  visible  facts.  What  are  the  facts  as  to 
the  relation  of  men  and  women  to  art  ?  And 
what,  in  especial,  has  been  the  effect  upon 
art  of  a  solely  masculine  expression? 

When  we  look  for  the  beginnings  of  art, 


MEN  AND  ART  71 

we  find  ourselves  in  a  period  of  crude  deco- 
ration of  the  person  and  of  personal  be- 
longings. Tattooing,  for  instance,  is  an 
early  form  of  decorative  art,  still  in  practice 
among  certain  classes,  even  in  advanced 
people.  Most  boys,  if  they  are  in  contact 
with  this  early  art,  admire  it,  and  wish  to 
adorn  themselves  therewith;  some  do  it,  too, 
to  later  mortification.  Early  personal 
decoration  consisted  largely  in  direct  muti- 
lation of  the  body,  and  the  hanging  upon  it, 
or  fastening  to  it,  of  decorative  objects. 
This  we  see  among  savages  still,  in  its  gross 
and  primitive  forms  monopolized  by  men, 
then  shared  by  women,  and,  in  our  time,  left 
almost  wholly  to  them.  In  personal  decora- 
tion, to-day,  women  are  still  near  the  savage. 
The  "artists"  developed  in  this  field  of  art 
are  the  tonsorial,  the  sartorial,  and  all  those 
specialized  adorners  of  the  body  commonly 
known  as  "beauty  doctors." 

Here,  as  in  other  cases,  the  greatest  artists 
are  men.  The  greatest  milliners,  the  great- 
est dressmakers  and  tailors,  the  greatest 
hairdressers,  and  the  masters  and  designers 
in  all  our   decorative   toilettes   and   acces- 


72  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

sories,  are  men.  Women,  in  this  as  in  so 
many  other  lines,  consume  rather  than  pro- 
duce. They  carry  the  major  part  of  per- 
sonal decoration  to-day;  but  the  decorator 
is  the  man.  In  the  decoration  of  objects, 
woman,  as  the  originator  of  primitive  indus- 
try, originated  also  the  primitive  arts;  and 
in  the  pottery,  basketry,  leatherwork,  needle- 
work, weaving,  with  all  beadwork,  dyeing, 
and  embroideries  of  ancient  peoples,  we  see 
the  work  of  the  woman  decorator.  Much  of 
this  is  strong  and  beautiful,  but  its  time  is 
long  past.  The  art  which  is  part  of  indus- 
try, natural,  simple,  spontaneous,  making 
beauty  in  every  object  of  use,  adding  pleas- 
ure to  labor  and  to  life,  is  not  Art  with  a 
large  A,  the  Art  which  requires  Artists, 
among  whom  are  so  few  women  of  note. 

Art  as  a  profession,  and  the  Artist  as  a 
professional,  came  later;  and  by  that  time 
women  had  left  the  freedom  and  power  of 
the  matriarchate  and  become  slaves  in  vary- 
ing degree.  The  women  who  were  idle  pets 
in  harems,  or  the  women  who  worked  hard 
as  servants,  were  alike  cut  off  from  the  joy 
of  making  tilings.  Where  constructive  work 


MEN  AND  ART  73 

remained  to  them,  art  remained,  in  its  early 
decorative  form.  Men,  in  the  proprietary 
family,  restricting  the  natural  industry  of 
women  to  personal  service,  cut  off  their  art 
with  their  industry,  and  by  so  much  impov- 
erished the  world. 

There  is  no  more  conspicuously  pathetic 
proof  of  the  aborted  development  of  woman 
than  this  commonplace — their  lack  of  a  civ- 
ilized art  sense.  Not  only  in  the  childish  and 
savage  display  upon  their  bodies,  but  in  the 
pitiful  products  they  hang  upon  the  walls 
of  the  home,  is  seen  the  arrest  in  normal 
growth. 

After  ages  of  culture,  in  which  men  have 
developed  Architecture,  Sculpture,  Paint- 
ing, Music  and  the  Drama,  we  find  women 
in  their  primitive  environment  making 
flowers  of  wax,  and  hair,  and  worsted,  doing 
mottoes  of  perforated  cardboard,  making 
crazy  quilts  and  mats  and  "tidies" — as  if 
they  lived  in  a  long  past  age,  or  belonged  to 
a  lower  race. 

This,  as  part  of  the  general  injury  to 
women  dating  from  the  beginning  of  our 
androcentric  culture,  reacts  heavily  upon  the 


74  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

world  at  large.  Men,  specializing,  giving 
their  lives  to  the  continuous  pursuit  of  one 
line  of  service,  have  lifted  our  standard  in 
aesthetic  culture,  as  they  have  in  other  mat- 
ters; but  by  refusing  the  same  growth  to 
women,  they  have  not  only  weakened  and 
reduced  the  output,  but  ruined  the  market 
as  it  were,  hopelessly  and  permanently  kept 
down  the  level  of  taste. 

Among  the  many  sides  of  this  great  ques- 
tion, some  so  terrible,  some  so  pathetic,  some 
so  utterly  absurd,  tliis  particular  phase  of 
life  is  especially  easy  to  study  and  under- 
stand, and  has  its  own  elements  of  amuse- 
ment. Men,  holding  women  at  the  level  of 
domestic  service,  going  on  themselves  to 
lonely  heights  of  achievement,  have  found 
their  efforts  hampered  and  their  attainments 
rendered  barren  and  unsatisfactory  by  the 
amazing  indifference  of  the  world  at  large. 
As  the  world  at  large  consists  half  of 
women,  and  wholly  of  their  children,  it 
would  seem  patent  to  the  meanest  under- 
standing that  the  women  must  be  allowed 
to  rise  in  order  to  lift  the  world.  But  such 
has  not  been  the  method — heretofore. 


MEN  AND  ART  75 

We  have  spoken  so  far  in  this  chapter  of 
the  effect  of  men  on  art  through  their 
interference  with  the  human  growth  of 
women.  There  are  other  sides  to  the  ques- 
tion. Let  us  consider  once  more  the  essen- 
tial characteristics  of  maleness,  and  see  how 
they  have  effected  art,  keeping  always  in 
mind  the  triple  distinction  between  mas- 
culine, feminine  and  human.  Perhaps  we 
shall  best  see  this  difference  by  considering 
what  the  development  of  art  might  have 
been  on  purely  human  lines. 

The  human  creature,  as  such,  naturally 
delights  in  construction,  and  adds  decora- 
tion to  construction  as  naturally.  The  cook, 
making  little  regular  patterns  round  the 
edge  of  the  pie,  does  so  from  a  purely  human 
instinct,  the  innate  eye-pleasure  in  regular- 
ity, symmetry,  repetition,  and  alternation. 
Had  this  natural  social  instinct  grown 
unchecked  in  us,  it  would  have  manifested 
itself  in  a  certain  proportion  of  specialists — 
artists  of  all  sorts — and  an  accompanying 
development  of  appreciation  on  the  part  of 
the  rest  of  us.  Such  is  the  case  in  primitive 
art;   the   maker   of   beauty   is   upheld   and 


76  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

rewarded  by  a  popular  appreciation  of  her 
work — or  his. 

Had  this  condition  remained,  we  should 
find  a  general  level  of  artistic  expression 
and  appreciation  far  higher  than  we  see 
now.  Take  the  one  field  of  textile  art,  for 
instance,  that  wide  and  fluent  medium  of 
expression,  the  making  of  varied  fabrics, 
the  fashioning  of  garments  and  the  decora- 
tion of  them — all  this  is  human  work  and 
human  pleasure.  It  should  have  led  us  to  a 
condition  where  every  human  being  was  a 
pleasure  to  the  eye,  appropriately  and 
beautifully  clothed. 

Our  real  condition  in  this  field  is  too 
patent  to  need  emphasis;  the  stiff,  black 
ugliness  of  our  men's  attire,  the  irritating 
variegated  folly  of  our  women's,  the  way  in 
which  we  spoil  the  beauty  and  shame  the 
dignity  of  childhood  by  modes  of  dress. 

In  normal  human  growth,  our  houses 
would  be  a  pleasure  to  the  eye ;  our  furniture 
and  utensils,  all  our  social  products,  would 
blossom  into  beauty  as  naturally  as  they  still 
do  in  those  low  stages  of  social  evolution 


MEN  AND  ART  77 

where  our  major  errors  have  not  yet  borne 
full  fruit. 

Applied  art  in  all  its  forms  is  a  human 
function,  common  to  every  one  to  some 
degree,  either  in  production  or  apprecia- 
tion or  both.  "Pure  art,"  as  an  ideal,  is  also 
human;  and  the  single-hearted  devotion  of 
the  true  artist  to  this  ideal  is  one  of  the  high- 
est forms  of  the  social  sacrifice.  Of  all  the 
thousand  ways  by  which  humanity  is  spe- 
cialized for  inter-service,  none  is  more  exqui- 
site than  this;  the  evolution  of  the  social 
Eye,  or  Ear,  or  Voice,  the  development  of 
those  whose  work  is  wholly  for  others,  and 
to  whom  the  appreciation  of  others  is  as 
the  bread  of  life.  This  we  should  have  in  a 
properly  developed  community;  the  pleas- 
ure of  applied  art  in  the  making  and  using 
of  everything  we  have,  and  then  the  high 
joy  of  the  Great  Artist,  and  the  noble  work 
thereof,  spread  far  and  wide. 

What  do  we  find  ? 

Applied  art  at  a  very  low  level,  small  joy 
either  for  the  maker  or  the  user.  Pure  art, 
a  fine-spun  specialty,  a  process  carried  on 
by  an  elect  few,  who   openly  despise   the 


78  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

unappreciative  many.  Art  has  become  an 
occult  profession  requiring  a  long  special 
education  even  to  enjoy,  and  evolving  a 
jargon  of  criticism  which  becomes  more 
esoteric  yearly. 

Let  us  now  see  what  part  in  this  unde- 
sirable outcome  is  due  to  our  Androcentric 
Culture. 

As  soon  as  the  male  of  our  species 
assumed  the  exclusive  right  to  perform  all 
social  functions,  he  necessarily  brought  to 
that  performance  the  advantages — and  dis- 
advantages— of  maleness,  of  those  dominant 
characteristics,  desire,  combat,  self-expres- 
sion. 

Desire  has  overweighted  art  in  many  visi- 
ble forms,  it  is  prominent  in  painting  and 
music,  almost  monopolizes  fiction,  and  has 
pitifully  degraded  dancing. 

Combat  is  not  so  easily  expressed  in  art, 
where  even  competition  is  on  a  high  plane; 
but  the  last  element  is  the  main  evil,  self- 
expression.  This  impulse  is  inherently  and 
ineradicably  masculine.  It  rests  on  that 
most  basic  of  distinctions  between  the  sexes, 
the   centripetal   and   centrifugal    forces    of 


MEN  AND  ART  79 

the  universe.  In  the  very  nature  of  the 
sperm-cell  and  the  germ-cell  we  find  this 
difference:  the  one  attracts,  gathers,  draws 
in;  the  other  repels,  scatters,  pushes  out. 
That  projective  impulse  is  seen  in  the  male 
nature  everywhere,  the  constant  urge 
toward  expression,  to  all  boasting  and  dis- 
play. This  spirit,  like  all  things  masculine, 
is  perfectly  right  and  admirable  in  its  place. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  male,  as  a  male,  to 
vary ;  bursting  forth  in  a  thousand  changing 
modifications — the  female,  selecting,  may  so 
incorporate  beneficial  changes  in  the  race.  It 
is  his  duty  to  thus  express  himself — an  essen- 
tially masculine  duty ;  but  masculinity  is  one 
thing,  and  art  is  another.  Neither  the  mas- 
culine nor  the  feminine  has  any  place  in  art 
— Art  is  Human. 

It  is  not  in  any  faintest  degree  allied  to 
the  personal  process  of  reproduction;  but  is 
a  social  process,  a  most  distinctive  social 
process,  quite  above  the  plane  of  sex.  The 
true  artist  transcends  his  sex,  or  her  sex.  If 
this  is  not  the  case,  the  art  suffers. 

Dancing  is  an  early,  and  a  beautiful  art; 
direct  expression   of   emotion   through  the 


80  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

body;  beginning  in  sub-human  type,  among 
male  birds,  as  the  bower-bird  of  New 
Guinea,  and  the  dancing  crane,  who  swing 
and  caper  before  their  mates.  Among  early 
peoples  we  find  it  a  common  form  of  social 
expression  in  tribal  dances  of  all  sorts, 
religious,  military,  and  other.  Later  it  be- 
comes a  more  explicit  form  of  celebration, 
as  among  the  Greeks;  in  whose  exquisite 
personal  culture  dancing  and  music  held 
high  place. 

But  under  the  progressive  efforts  of 
purely  masculine  dominance  we  find  the 
broader  human  elements  of  dancing  left  out, 
and  the  sex-element  more  and  more  empha- 
sized. As  practiced  by  men  alone  dancing 
has  become  a  mere  display  of  physical 
agility,  a  form  of  exhibition  common  to  all 
males.  As  practiced  by  men  and  women 
together  we  have  our  social  dances,  so  lack- 
ing in  all  the  varied  beauty  of  posture  and 
expression,  so  steadily  becoming  a  pleasant 
form  of  dalliance. 

As  practiced  by  women  alone  we  have  one 
of  the  clearest  proofs  of  the  degrading  effect 
of  masculine  dominance — the  dancing  girl. 


MEN  AND  ART  81 

In  the  frank  sensualism  of  the  Orient,  this 
personage  is  admired  and  enjoyed  on  her 
merits.  We,  more  sophisticated  in  this 
matter,  joke  shamefacedly  about  "the  bald- 
headed  row,"  and  occasionally  burst  forth  in 
shrill  scandal  over  some  dinner  party  where 
a  lady  clad  in  a  veil  and  a  bracelet  dances  on 
the  table.  Nowhere  else  in  the  whole  range 
of  life  on  earth,  is  this  degradation  found — 
the  female  capering  and  prancing  before  the 
male.  It  is  absolutely  and  essentially  his 
function,  not  hers.  That  we,  as  a  race,  pre- 
sent this  pitiful  spectacle,  a  natural  art 
wrested  to  unnatural  ends,  a  noble  art 
degraded  to  ignoble  ends,  has  one  clear 
cause. 

Architecture,  in  its  own  nature,  is  least 
affected  by  that  same  cause.  The  human 
needs  secured  by  it,  are  so  human,  so  unes- 
capably  human,  that  we  find  less  trace  of 
excessive  masculinity  than  in  other  arts.  It 
meets  our  social  demands,  it  expresses  in 
lasting  form  our  social  feeling,  up  to  the 
highest;  and  it  has  been  injured  not  so  much 
by  an  excess  of  masculinity  as  by  a  lack  of 
femininity. 


82  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

The  most  universal  architectural  expres- 
sion is  in  the  home;  the  home  is  essentially  a 
place  for  the  woman  and  the  child,  yet  the 
needs  of  woman  and  child  are  not  expressed 
in  our  domestic  architecture.  The  home  is 
built  on  lines  of  ancient  precedent,  mainly 
as  an  industrial  form ;  the  kitchen  is  its  work- 
ing centre  rather  than  the  nursery. 

Each  man  wishes  his  home  to  preserve  and 
seclude  his  woman,  his  little  harem  of  one; 
and  in  it  she  is  to  labor  for  his  comfort  or 
to  manifest  his  ability  to  maintain  her  in 
idleness.  The  house  is  the  physical  expres- 
sion of  the  limitations  of  women;  and  as 
such  it  fills  the  world  with  a  small  drab  ugli- 
ness. A  dwelling  house  is  rarely  a  beauti- 
ful object.  In  order  to  be  such,  it  should 
truly  express  simple  and  natural  relations; 
or  grow  in  larger  beauty  as  our  lives  develop. 

The  deadlock  for  architectural  progress, 
the  low  level  of  our  general  taste,  the  ever- 
lasting predominance  of  the  commonplace 
in  buildings,  is  the  natural  result  of  the  pro- 
prietary family  and  its  expression  in  this 
form. 

In  sculpture  we  have  a  noble  art  forcing 


MEN  AND  ART  83 

itself  into  some  service  through  many 
limitations.  Its  check,  as  far  as  it  comes 
under  this  line  of  study,  has  been  indicated 
in  our  last  chapter;  the  degradation  of  the 
human  body,  the  vicious  standards  of  sex- 
consciousness  enforced  under  the  name  of 
modesty,  the  covered  ugliness  which  we  do 
not  recognize,  all  this  is  a  deadly  injury  to 
free  high  work  in  sculpture. 

With  a  nobly  equal  womanhood,  stalwart 
and  athletic,  with  the  high  standards  of 
beauty  and  of  decorum  which  we  can  never 
have  without  free  womanhood,  we  should 
show  a  different  product  in  this  great  art. 

An  interesting  note  in  passing  is  this: 
When  we  seek  to  express  sculpturally  our 
noblest  ideas,  Truth,  Justice,  Liberty,  we 
use  the  woman's  body  as  the  highest  human 
type.  But  in  doing  this,  the  artist,  true  to 
humanity  and  not  biased  by  sex,  gives  us  a 
strong,  grand  figure,  beautiful  indeed,  but 
never  decorated.  Fancy  Liberty  in  ruffles 
and  frills,  with  rings  in  her  ears — or  nose. 

Music  is  injured  by  a  one-side  handling, 
partly  in  the  excess  of  the  one  dominant 
masculine   passion,   partly   by   the   general 


84  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

presence  of  egoism,  that  tendency  to  self- 
expression  instead  of  social  expression, 
which  so  disfigures  our  art;  and  this  is  true 
also  of  poetry. 

Miles  and  miles  of  poetry  consist  of  the 
ceaseless  outcry  of  the  male  for  the  female, 
which  is  by  no  means  so  overwhelming  a 
feature  of  human  life  as  he  imagines  it;  and 
other  miles  express  his  other  feelings,  with 
that  ingenious  lack  of  reticence  which  is  at 
its  base  essentially  masculine.  Having  a 
pain,  the  poet  must  needs  pour  it  forth,  that 
his  woe  be  shared  and  sympathized  with. 

As  more  and  more  women  writers  flock 
into  the  field,  there  is  room  for  fine  historic 
study  of  the  difference  in  sex  feeling,  and 
the  gradual  emergence  of  the  human  note. 

Literature,  and  in  especial  the  art  of 
fiction,  is  so  large  a  field  for  this  study  that 
it  will  have  a  chapter  to  itself;  this  one  but 
touching  on  these  various  forms,  and  indi- 
cating lines  of  observation. 

That  best  known  form  of  art  which  to 
the  lay  mind  needs  no  qualifying  descrip- 
tion— painting — is  also  a  wide  field;  and 
cannot  be  done  full  justice  to  within  these 


MEN  AND  ART  85 

limits.  The  effect  upon  it  of  too  much  mas- 
culinity is  not  so  much  in  choice  of  subject 
as  in  method  and  spirit.  The  artist  sees 
beauty  of  form  and  color  where  the  ordin- 
ary observer  does  not;  and  paints  the  old 
and  ugly  with  as  much  enthusiasm  as  the 
young  and  beautiful — sometimes.  If  there 
is  in  some  an  over-emphasis  of  feminine 
attractions  it  is  counterbalanced  in  others  by 
a  far  broader  line  of  work. 

But  the  main  evils  of  a  too  masculine  art 
lie  in  the  emphasis  laid  on  the  self-expres- 
sion. The  artist,  passionately  conscious  of 
how  he  feels,  strives  to  make  other  people 
aware  of  these  sensations.  This  is  now  so 
generally  accepted  by  critics,  so  seriously 
advanced  by  painters,  that  what  is  called 
"the  art  world"  accepts  it  as  established. 

If  a  man  paints  the  sea,  it  is  not  to  make 
you  see  and  feel  as  a  sight  of  that  same 
ocean  would,  but  to  make  you  see  and  feel 
how  he,  personally,  was  affected  by  it;  a 
matter  surely  of  the  narrowest  importance. 
The  ultra-masculine  artist,  extremely  sen- 
sitive, necessarily,  and  full  of  the  natural 
urge    to   expression    of   the    sex,    uses    the 


86  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

medium  of  art  as  ingenuously  as  the  part- 
ridge-cock uses  his  wings  in  drumming  on 
the  log,  or  the  bull  moose  stamps  and 
bellows;  not  narrowly  as  a  mate  call,  but  as 
a  form  of  expression  of  his  personal  sensa- 
tions. 

The  higher  the  artist  the  more  human  he 
is,  the  broader  his  vision,  the  more  he  sees 
for  humanity,  and  expresses  for  humanity, 
and  the  less  personal,  the  less  ultra-mas- 
culine, is  his  expression. 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  87 


CHAPTER  V 

MASCULINE  LITERATURE 

WHEN  we  are  offered  a  "woman's" 
paper,  page,  or  column,  we  find 
it  filled  with  matter  supposed  to 
appeal  to  women  as  a  sex  or  class ;  the  writer 
mainly  dwelling  upon  the  Kaiser's  four  K's 
Kuchen,  Kinder,  Kirche,  Kleider.  They 
iterate  and  reiterate  endlessly  the  discussion 
of  cookery  old  and  new,  of  the  care  of  chil- 
dren, of  the  overwhelming  subject  of  cloth- 
ing, and  of  moral  instruction.  All  this  is 
recognized  as  "feminine"  literature,  and  it 
must  have  some  appeal,  else  the  women 
would  not  read  it.  What  parallel  have  we 
in  "masculine"  literature? 

"None!"  is  the  proud  reply.  "Men  are 
people !  Women,  being  'the  sex/  have  their 
limited  feminine  interests,  their  feminine 
point  of  view,  which  must  be  provided  for. 


88  THE  MAN-MADE  WO  RED 

Men,  however,  are  not  restricted — to  them 
belongs  the  world's  literature!" 

Yes,  it  has  belonged  to  them — ever  since 
there  was  any.  They  have  written  it  and 
they  have  read  it.  It  is  only  lately  that 
women,  generally  speaking,  have  been 
taught  to  read;  still  more  lately  that  they 
have  been  allowed  to  write.  It  is  but  a  little 
while  since  Harriet  Martineau  concealed 
her  writing  beneath  her  sewing  when  visi- 
tors came  in — writing  was  "masculine" — 
sewing,  "feminine." 

We  have  not,  it  is  true,  confined  men  to 
a  narrowly  constructed  "masculine  sphere," 
and  composed  a  special  literature  suited  to 
it.  Their  effect  on  literature  has  been 
far  wider  than  that,  monopolizing  this  form 
of  art  with  special  favor.  It  was  suited 
above  all  others  to  the  dominant  impulse  of 
self-expression,  and  being,  as  we  have  seen, 
essentially  and  continually  "the  sex;"  they 
have  impressed  that  sex  upon  this  art  over- 
whelmingly; they  have  given  the  world  a 
masculized  literature. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  this.  We  can 
readily  see,  that  if  women  had  always  written 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  89 

the  books,  no  men  either  writing  or  reading 
them,  that  would  have  surely  "feminized" 
our  literature ;  but  we  have  not  in  our  minds 
the  concept,  much  less  the  word,  for  an  over- 
masculized  influence. 

Men  having  been  accepted  as  humanity, 
women  but  a  side-issue;  (most  literally  if  we 
accept  the  Hebrew  legend!),  whatever  men 
did  or  said  was  human — and  not  to  be  criti- 
cized. In  no  department  of  life  is  it  easier 
to  controvert  this  old  belief ;  to  show  how  the 
male  sex  as  such  differs  from  the  human 
type;  and  how  this  maleness  has  monopo- 
lized and  disfigured  a  great  social  function. 

Human  life  is  a  very  large  affair;  and 
literature  is  its  chief  art.  We  live,  humanly, 
only  through  our  power  of  communication. 
Speech  gives  us  this  power  laterally,  as  it 
were,  in  immediate  personal  contact.  For 
permanent  use  speech  becomes  oral  tra- 
dition— a  poor  dependence.  Literature 
gives  not  only  an  infinite  multiplication  to 
the  lateral  spread  of  communion  but  adds 
the  vertical  reach.  Through  it  we  know  the 
past,  govern  the  present,  and  influence  the 
future.    In  its  serviceable  common  forms  it 


90  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

is  the  indispensable  daily  servant  of  our 
lives;  in  its  nobler  flights  as  a  great  art  no 
means  of  human  inter-change  goes  so  far. 

In  these  brief  limits  we  can  touch  but 
lightly  on  some  phases  of  so  great  a  sub- 
ject, and  will  rest  the  case  mainly  on  the 
effect  of  an  exclusively  masculine  handling 
of  the  two  fields  of  history  and  fiction.  In 
poetry  and  the  drama  the  same  influence  is 
easily  traced,  but  in  the  first  two  it  is  so 
baldly  prominent  as  to  defy  objection. 

History  is,  or  should  be,  the  story  of  our 
racial  life.  What  have  men  made  it?  The 
story  of  warfare  and  conquest.  Begin  at 
the  very  beginning  with  the  carven  stones 
of  Egypt,  the  clay  records  of  Chaldea,  what 
do  we  find  of  history? 

"I,  Pharaoh,  King  of  Kings!  Lord  of 
Lords!"  (etc.  etc.),  "went  down  into  the 
miserable  land  of  Kush,  and  slew  of  the 
inhabitants  thereof  an  hundred  and  forty 
and  two  thousands!"  That,  or  something 
like  it,  is  the  kind  of  record  early  history 
gives  us. 

The  story  of  Conquering  Kings,  whom 
and  how  many  they  killed  and  enslaved,  the 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  91 

grovelling  adulation  of  the  abased,  the 
unlimited  jubilation  of  the  victor,  from  the 
primitive  state  of  most  ancient  kings,  and 
the  Roman  triumphs  where  queens  walked 
in  chains,  down  to  our  omnipresent  soldier's 
monuments;  the  story  of  war  and  conquest 
— war  and  conquest — over  and  over,  with 
such  boasting  and  triumph,  such  cock-crow 
and  flapping  of  wings  as  show  most  unmis- 
takably the  natural  source. 

All  this  will  strike  the  reader  at  first  as 
biased  and  unfair.  "That  was  the  way 
people  lived  in  those  days!"  says  the  reader. 

No — it  was  not  the  way  women  lived. 

"Oh,  women!"  says  the  reader,  "Of  course 
not !    Women  are  different." 

Yes,  women  are  different;  and  men  are 
different!  Both  of  them,  as  sexes,  differ 
from  the  human  norm,  which  is  social  life 
and  all  social  development.  Society  was 
slowly  growing  in  all  those  black,  blind 
years.  The  arts,  the  sciences,  the  trades  and 
crafts  and  professions,  religion,  philosophy, 
government,  law,  commerce,  agriculture — 
all  the  human  processes  were  going  on  as 
well  as  they  were  able,  between  wars. 


92  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

The  male  naturally  fights,  and  naturally 
crows,  triumphs  over  his  rival  and  takes  the 
prize — therefore  was  he  made  male.  Male- 
ness  means  war. 

Not  only  so;  but  as  a  male,  he  cares  only 
for  male  interests.  Men,  being  the  sole 
arbiters  of  what  should  be  done  and  said 
and  written,  have  given  us  not  only  a  social 
growth  scarred  and  thwarted  from  the  be- 
ginning by  continual  destruction;  but  a  his- 
tory which  is  one  unbroken  record  of 
courage  and  red  cruelty,  of  triumph  and 
black  shame. 

As  to  what  went  on  that  was  of  real  con- 
sequence, the  great  slow  steps  of  the  work- 
ing world,  the  discoveries  and  inventions, 
the  real  progress  of  humanity — that  was  not 
worth  recording,  from  a  masculine  point  of 
view.  Within  this  last  century,  "the 
woman's  century,"  the  century  of  the  great 
awakening,  the  rising  demand  for  freedom, 
political,  economic,  and  domestic,  we  are 
beginning  to  write  real  history,  human  his- 
tory, and  not  merely  masculine  history.  But 
that  great  branch  of  literature — Hebrew, 
Greek,  Roman,  and  all  down  later  times, 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  93 

shows  beyond  all  question,  the  influence  of 
our  androcentric  culture. 

Literature  is  the  most  powerful  and  neces- 
sary of  the  arts,  and  fiction  is  its  broadest 
form.  If  art  "holds  the  mirror  up  to 
nature"  this  art's  mirror  is  the  largest  of  all, 
the  most  used.  Since  our  very  life  depends 
on  some  communication,  and  our  prog- 
ress is  in  proportion  to  our  fullness  and 
freedom  of  communication,  since  real  com- 
munication requires  mutual  understanding; 
so  in  the  growth  of  the  social  consciousness, 
we  note  from  the  beginning  a  passionate 
interest  in  other  people's  lives. 

The  art  which  gives  humanity  conscious- 
ness is  the  most  vital  art.  Our  greatest 
dramatists  are  lauded  for  their  breadth  of 
knowledge  of  "human  nature,"  their  range 
of  emotion  and  understanding;  our  greatest 
poets  are  those  who  most  deeply  and  widely 
experience  and  reveal  the  feelings  of  the 
human  heart;  and  the  power  of  fiction  is 
that  it  can  reach  and  express  this  great  field 
of  human  life  with  no  limits  but  those  of  the 
author. 

When  fiction  began  it  was  the  legitimate 


94  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

child  of  oral  tradition,  a  product  of  natural 
brain  activity ;  the  legend  constructed  instead 
of  remembered.  (This  stage  is  with  us  yet 
as  seen  in  the  constant  changes  in  repetition 
of  popular  jokes  and  stories.) 

Fiction  to-day  has  a  much  wider  range; 
yet  it  is  still  restricted,  heavily  and  most 
mischievously  restricted. 

What  is  the  preferred  subject  matter  of 
fiction  ? 

There  are  two  main  branches  found  every- 
where, from  the  Romaunt  of  the  Rose  to  the 
Purplish  Magazine; — the  Story  of  Adven- 
ture, and  the  Love  Story. 

The  Story-of- Adventure  branch  is  not  so 
thick  as  the  other  by  any  means,  but  it  is 
a  sturdy  bough  for  all  that.  Stevenson  and 
Kipling  have  proved  its  immense  popularity, 
with  the  whole  brood  of  detective  stories  and 
the  tales  of  successful  rascality  we  call  "pic- 
turesque." Our  most  popular  weekly  shows 
the  broad  appeal  of  this  class  of  fiction. 

All  these  tales  of  adventure,  of  struggle 
and  difficulty,  of  hunting  and  fishing  and 
fighting,  of  robbing  and  murdering,  catch- 
ing and  punishing,  are  distinctly  and  essen- 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  95 

tially  masculine.  They  do  not  touch  on 
human  processes,  social  processes,  but  on  the 
special  field  of  predatory  excitement  so  long 
the  sole  province  of  men. 

It  is  to  be  noted  here  that  even  in  the  over- 
whelming rise  of  industrial  interests  to-day, 
these,  when  used  as  the  basis  for  a  story,  are 
forced  into  line  with  one,  or  both,  of  these 
two  main  branches  of  fiction; — conflict  or 
love.  Unless  the  story  has  one  of  these 
"interests"  in  it,  there  is  no  story — so  holds 
the  editor;  the  dictum  being,  put  plainly, 
"life  has  no  interests  except  conflict  and 
love!" 

It  is  surely  something  more  than  a  coin- 
cidence that  these  are  the  two  essential 
features  of  masculinity — Desire  and  Com- 
bat— Love  and  War. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  major  interests  of 
life  are  in  line  with  its  major  processes;  and 
these — in  our  stage  of  human  development 
— are  more  varied  than  our  fiction  would 
have  us  believe.  Half  the  world  consists  of 
women,  we  should  remember,  who  are  types 
of  human  life  as  well  as  men,  and  their 
major  processes  are  not  those  of  conflict  and 


96  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

adventure,  their  love  means  more  than  mat- 
ing. Even  on  so  poor  a  line  of  distinction 
as  the  "woman's  column"  offers,  if  women 
are  to  be  kept  to  their  four  K's,  there  should 
be  a  "men's  column"  also,  and  all  the  "sport- 
ing news"  and  fish  stories  be  put  in  that; 
they  are  not  world  interests,  they  are  male 
interests. 

Now  for  the  main  branch — the  Love 
Story.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  fiction  is  in  this 
line;  this  is  pre-eminently  the  major  interest 
of  life — given  in  fiction.  What  is  the  love- 
story,  as  rendered  by  this  art? 

It  is  the  story  of  the  pre-marital  struggle 
It  is  the  Adventures  of  Him  in  Pursuit  of 
Her — and  it  stops  when  he  gets  her !  Story 
after  story,  age  after  age,  over  and  over  and 
over,  this  ceaseless  repetition  of  the  Prelim- 
inaries. 

Here  is  Human  Life.  In  its  large  sense, 
its  real  sense,  it  is  a  matter  of  inter-relation 
between  individuals  and  groups,  covering  all 
emotions,  all  processes,  all  experiences.  Out 
of  this  vast  field  of  human  life  fiction  arbit- 
rarily selects  one  emotion,  one  process,  one 
experience,  as  its  necessary  base. 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  97 

"Ah!  but  we  are  persons  most  of  all!" 
protests  the  reader.  "This  is  personal 
experience — it  has  the  universal  appeal!" 

Take  human  life  personally,  then.  Here 
is  a  Human  Being,  a  life,  covering  some 
seventy  years,  involving  the  changing 
growth  of  many  faculties;  the  ever  new 
marvels  of  youth,  the  long  working  time  of 
middle  life,  the  slow  ripening  of  age.  Here 
is  the  human  soul,  in  the  human  body, 
Living.  Out  of  this  field  of  personal  life, 
with  all  of  its  emotions,  processes,  and 
experiences,  fiction  arbitrarily  selects  one 
emotion,  one  process,  one  experience,  mainly 
of  one  sex. 

The  "love"  of  our  stories  is  man's  love  of 
woman.  If  any  dare  dispute  this,  and  say 
it  treats  equally  of  woman's  love  for  man,  I 
answer,  "Then  why  do  the  stories  stop  at 
marriage?" 

There  is  a  current  jest,  revealing  much,  to 
this  effect: 

The  young  wife  complains  that  the  hus- 
band does  not  wait  upon  and  woo  her  as  he 
did  before  marriage;  to  which  he  replies, 


98  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

"Why  should  I  run  after  the  street-car  when 
I've  caught  it?" 

Woman's  love  for  man,  as  currently 
treated  in  fiction  is  largely  a  reflex;  it 
is  the  way  he  wants  her  to  feel,  expects 
her  to  feel.  Not  a  fair  representation 
of  how  she  does  feel.  If  "love"  is  to  be 
selected  as  the  most  important  thing  in  life 
to  write  about,  then  the  mother's  love  should 
be  the  principal  subject.  This  is  the  main 
stream,  this  is  the  general  underlying, 
world-lifting  force.  The  "life-force,"  now 
so  glibly  chattered  about,  finds  its  fullest 
expression  in  motherhood;  not  in  the  emo- 
tions of  an  assistant  in  the  preliminary 
stages. 

What  has  literature,  what  has  fiction  to 
offer  concerning  mother-love,  or  even  con- 
cerning father-love,  as  compared  to  this  vast 
volume  of  excitement  about  lover-love  ?  Why 
is  the  search-light  continually  focused  upon 
a  two  or  three  years  space  of  life  "mid  the 
blank  miles  round  about?"  Why  indeed, 
except  for  the  clear  reason,  that  on  a  starkly 
masculine  basis  this  is  his  one  period  of  over- 
whelming interest  and  excitement. 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  99 

If  the  beehive  produced  literature,  the 
bee's  fiction  would  be  rich  and  broad,  full 
of  the  complex  tasks  of  comb-building  and 
filling,  the  care  and  feeding  of  the  young, 
the  guardian-service  of  the  queen;  and  far 
beyond  that  it  would  spread  to  the  blue  glory 
of  the  summer  sky,  the  fresh  winds,  the  end- 
less beauty  and  sweetness  of  a  thousand 
thousand  flowers.  It  would  treat  of  the 
vast  fecundity  of  motherhood,  the  educative 
and  selective  processes  of  the  group- 
mothers,  and  the  passion  of  loyalty,  of 
social  service,  which  holds  the  hive  together. 

But  if  the  drones  wrote  fiction,  it  would 
have  no  subject  matter  save  the  feasting,  of 
many ;  and  the  nuptial  flight,  of  one. 

To  the  male,  as  such,  this  mating  instinct 
is  frankly  the  major  interest  of  life;  even  the 
belligerent  instincts  are  second  to  it.  To  the 
male,  as  such,  it  is  for  all  its  intensity,  but  a 
passing  interest.  In  nature's  economy,  his 
is  but  a  temporary  devotion,  hers  the  slow 
processes  of  life's  fulfillment. 

In  humanity  we  have  long  since,  not  out- 
grown, but  overgrown,  this  stage  of  feeling. 
In   Human   Parentage   even   the   mother's 


100  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

share  begins  to  pale  beside  that  ever-grow- 
ing Social  love  and  care,  which  guards  and 
guides  the  children  of  to-day. 

The  art  of  literature  in  this  main  form  of 
fiction  is  far  too  great  a  thing  to  be  wholly 
governed  by  one  dominant  note.  As  life 
widened  and  intensified,  the  artist,  if  great 
enough,  has  transcended  sex;  and  in  the 
mightier  works  of  the  real  masters,  we  find 
fiction  treating  of  life,  life  in  general,  in  all 
its  complex  relationships,  and  refusing  to  be 
held  longer  to  the  rigid  canons  of  an  andro- 
centric past. 

That  was  the  power  of  Balzac — he  took  in 
more  than  this  one  field.  That  was  the 
universal  appeal  of  Dickens;  he  wrote  of 
people,  all  kinds  of  people,  doing  all  kinds 
of  things.  As  you  recall  with  pleasure  some 
preferred  novel  of  this  general  favorite,  you 
find  yourself  looking  narrowly  for  the  "love 
story"  in  it.  It  is  there — for  it  is  part  of 
life;  but  it  does  not  dominate  the  whole 
scene — any  more  than  it  does  in  life. 

The  thought  of  the  world  is  made  and 
handed  out  to  us  in  the  main.    The  makers 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  101 

of  books  are  the  makers  of  thoughts  and 
feelings  for  the  people  in  general.  Fiction 
is  the  most  popular  form  in  which  this  world- 
food  is  taken.  If  it  were  true,  it  would  teach 
us  life  easily,  swiftly,  truly;  teach  not  by 
preaching  but  by  truly  re-presenting;  and 
we  should  grow  up  becoming  acquainted 
with  a  far  wider  range  of  life  in  books  than 
could  even  be  ours  in  person.  Then  meeting 
life  in  reality  we  should  be  wise — and  not  be 
disappointed. 

As  it  is,  our  great  sea  of  fiction  is  steeped 
and  dyed  and  flavored  all  one  way.  A 
young  man  faces  life — the  seventy  year 
stretch,  remember,  and  is  given  book  upon 
book  wherein  one  set  of  feelings  is  contin- 
ually vocalized  and  overestimated.  He  reads 
forever  of  love,  good  love  and  bad  love, 
natural  and  unnatural,  legitimate  and  ille- 
gitimate; with  the  unavoidable  inference  that 
there  is  nothing  else  going  on. 

If  he  is  a  healthy  young  man  he  breaks 
loose  from  the  whole  thing,  despises  "love 
stories"  and  takes  up  life  as  he  finds  it.  But 
what  impression  he  does  receive  from  fiction 
is  a  false  one,  and  he  suffers  without  know- 


102  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

ing  it  from  lack  of  the  truer,  broader  views 
of  life  it  failed  to  give  him. 

A  young  woman  faces  life — the  seventy 
year  stretch  remember;  and  is  given  the 
same  books — with  restrictions.  Remember 
the  remark  of  Rochefoucauld,  "There  are 
thirty  good  stories  in  the  world  and  twenty- 
nine  cannot  be  told  to  women."  There  is  a 
certain  broad  field  of  literature  so  grossly 
androcentric  that  for  very  shame  men  have 
tried  to  keep  it  to  themselves.  But  in  a 
milder  form,  the  spades  all  named  teaspoons, 
or  at  the  worst  appearing  as  trowels — the 
young  woman  is  given  the  same  fiction. 
Love  and  love  and  love — from  "first  sight" 
to  marriage.  There  it  stops — just  the  flut- 
tering ribbon  of  announcement — "and  lived 
happily  ever  after." 

Is  that  kind  of  fiction  any  sort  of  picture 
of  a  woman's  life?  Fiction,  under  our 
androcentric  culture,  has  not  given  any  true 
picture  of  woman's  life,  very  little  of  human 
life,  and  a  disproportioned  section  of  man's 
life. 

As  we  daily  grow  more  human,  both  of 
us,  this  noble  art  is  changing  for  the  better 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  103 

so  fast  that  a  short  lifetime  can  mark  the 
growth.  New  fields  are  opening  and  new 
laborers  are  working  in  them.  But  it  is  no 
swift  and  easy  matter  to  disabuse  the  race 
mind  from  attitudes  and  habits  inculcated 
for  a  thousand  years.  What  we  have  been 
fed  upon  so  long  we  are  well  used  to,  what 
we  are  used  to  we  like,  what  we  like  we  think 
is  good  and  proper. 

The  widening  demand  for  broader,  truer 
fiction  is  disputed  by  the  slow  racial  mind; 
and  opposed  by  the  marketers  of  literature 
on  grounds  of  visible  self-interest,  as  well  as 
lethargic  conservatism. 

It  is  difficult  for  men,  heretofore  the  sole 
producers  and  consumers  of  literature;  and 
for  women,  new  to  the  field,  and  following 
masculine  canons  because  all  the  canons 
were  masculine;  to  stretch  their  minds  to  a 
recognition  of  the  change  which  is  even  now 
upon  us. 

This  one  narrow  field  has  been  for  so  long 
overworked,  our  minds  are  so  filled  with 
heroes  and  heroes  continually  repeating  the 
one-act  play,  that  when  a  book  like  David 
Harum  is  offered  the  publishers  refuse  it 


104  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

repeatedly,  and  finally  insist  on  a  "heart 
interest"  being  injected  by  force. 

Did  anyone  read  David  Harum  for  that 
heart  interest  ?  Does  anyone  remember  that 
heart  interest?  Has  humanity  no  interests 
but  those  of  the  heart  ? 

Robert  Ellesmere  was  a  popular  book — 
but  not  because  of  its  heart  interest. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  appealed  to  the  entire 
world,  more  widely  than  any  work  of  fiction 
that  was  ever  written;  but  if  anybody  fell  in 
love  and  married  in  it  they  have  been 
forgotten.  There  was  plenty  of  love  in  that 
book,  love  of  family,  love  of  friends,  love  of 
master  for  servant  and  servant  for  master; 
love  of  mother  for  child;  love  of  married 
people  for  each  other ;  love  of  humanity  and 
love  of  God. 

It  was  extremely  popular.  Some  say  it 
was  not  literature.  That  opinion  will  live, 
like  the  name  of  Empedocles. 

The  art  of  fiction  is  being  re-born  in  these 
days.  Life  is  discovered  to  be  longer,  wider, 
deeper,  richer,  than  these  monotonous 
players  of  one  tune  would  have  us  believe. 

The  humanizing  of  woman  of  itself  opens 


MASCULINE  LITERATURE  105 

five  distinctly  fresh  fields  of  fiction:  First, 
the  position  of  the  young  woman  who  is 
called  upon  to  give  up  her  "career" — her 
humanness — for  marriage,  and  who  objects 
to  it.  Second,  the  middle-aged  woman  who 
at  last  discovers  that  her  discontent  is  social 
starvation — that  it  is  not  more  love  that  she 
wants,  but  more  business  in  life:  Third,  the 
inter-relation  of  women  with  women — a 
thing  we  could  never  write  about  before 
because  we  never  had  it  before:  except  in 
harems  and  convents:  Fourth,  the  inter- 
action between  mothers  and  children;  this 
not  the  eternal  "mother  and  child,"  wherein 
the  child  is  always  a  baby,  but  the  long 
drama  of  personal  relationship ;  the  love  and 
hope,  the  patience  and  power,  the  lasting 
joy  and  triumph,  the  slow  eating  disap- 
pointment which  must  never  be  owned  to  a 
living  soul — here  are  grounds  for  novels 
that  a  million  mothers  and  many  million 
children  would  eagerly  read :  Fifth,  the  new 
attitude  of  the  full-grown  woman,  who  faces 
the  demands  of  love  with  the  high  standards 
of  conscious  motherhood. 

There  are  other    fields,    broad   and    bril- 


106  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

liantly  promising,  but  this  chapter  is  meant 
merely  to  show  that  our  one-sided  culture 
has,  in  this  art,  most  disproportionately 
overestimated  the  dominant  instincts  of  the 
male — Love  and  War — an  offense  against 
art  and  truth,  and  an  injury  to  life. 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  107 


CHAPTER  VI 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS 


ONE  of  the  sharpest  distinctions 
both  between  the  essential  char- 
acters and  the  artificial  posi- 
tions of  men  and  women,  is  in  the  matter  of 
games  and  sports.  By  far  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  them  are  essentially  masculine, 
and  as  such  alien  to  women;  while  from 
those  which  are  humanly  interesting,  women 
have  been  largely  debarred  by  their  arbi- 
trary restrictions. 

The  play  instinct  is  common  to  girls  and 
boys  alike;  and  endures  in  some  measure 
throughout  life.  As  other  young  animals 
express  their  abounding  energies  in  capri- 
cious activities  similar  to  those  followed  in 
the  business  of  living,  so  small  children 
gambol,  physically,  like  lambs  and  kids;  and 
as  the  young  of  higher  kinds  of  animals 


108  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

imitate  in  their  play  the  more  complex 
activities  of  their  elders,  so  do  children 
imitate  whatever  activities  they  see  about 
them.  In  this  field  of  playing  there  is  no 
sex. 

Similarly  in  adult  life  healthy  and  happy 
persons,  men  and  women,  naturally  express 
surplus  energy  in  various  forms  of  sport. 
We  have  here  one  of  the  most  distinctively 
human  manifestations.  The  great  accumu- 
lation of  social  energy,  and  the  necessary 
limitations  of  any  one  kind  of  work,  leave  a 
human  being  tired  of  one  form  of  action,  yet 
still  uneasy  for  lack  of  full  expression;  and 
this  social  need  has  been  met  by  our  great 
safety  valve  of  games  and  sports. 

In  a  society  of  either  sex,  or  in  a  society 
without  sex,  there  would  still  be  both 
pleasure  and  use  in  games;  they  are  vitally 
essential  to  human  life.  In  a  society  of  two 
sexes,  wherein  one  has  dictated  all  the  terms 
of  life,  and  the  other  has  been  confined  to  an 
extremely  limited  fraction  of  human  living, 
we  may  look  to  see  this  great  field  of  enjoy- 
ment as  disproportionately  divided. 

It  is  not  only  that  we  have  reduced  the 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  109 

play  impulse  in  women  by  restricting  them 
to  one  set  of  occupations,  and  over-taxing 
their  energies  with  mother-work  and  house- 
work combined;  and  not  only  that,  by  our 
androcentric  conventions  we  further  restrict 
their  amusements;  but  we  begin  in  infancy, 
and  forcibly  differentiate  their  toys  and 
methods  of  play  long  before  any  natural 
distinction  would  appear. 

Take  that  universal  joy  the  doll,  or 
puppet,  as  an  instance.  A  small  imitation 
of  a  large  known  object  carries  delight  to 
the  heart  of  a  child  of  either  sex.  The 
worsted  cat,  the  wooden  horse,  the  little 
wagon,  the  tin  soldier,  the  wax  doll,  the  toy 
village,  the  "Noah's  Ark,"  the  omnipresent 
"Teddy  Bear,"  any  and  every  small  model 
of  a  real  thing  is  a  delight  to  the  young 
human  being.  Of  all  things  the  puppet  is 
the  most  intimate,  the  little  image  of  another 
human  being  to  play  with.  The  fancy  of 
the  child,  making  endless  combinations  with 
these  visible  types,  plays  as  freely  as  a  kitten 
in  the  leaves;  or  gravely  carries  out  some 
observed  forms  of  life,  as  the  kitten  imitates 
its  mother's  hunting 


110  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

So  far  all  is  natural  and  human. 

Now  see  our  attitude  toward  child's  play 
— under  a  masculine  culture.  Regarding 
women  only  as  a  sex,  and  that  sex  as  mani- 
fest from  infancy,  we  make  and  buy  for  our 
little  girls  toys  suitable  to  this  view.  Being 
females — which  means  mothers,  we  must 
needs  provide  them  with  babies  before  they 
cease  to  be  babies  themselves ;  and  we  expect 
their  play  to  consist  in  an  imitation  of 
maternal  cares.  The  doll,  the  puppet,  which 
interests  all  children,  we  have  rendered  as 
an  eternal  baby;  and  we  foist  them  upon  our 
girl  children  by  ceaseless  millions. 

The  doll,  as  such,  is  dear  to  the  little  boy 
as  well  as  the  girl,  but  not  as  a  baby.  He 
likes  his  jumping- jack,  his  worsted  Sambo, 
often  a  genuine  rag-doll;  but  he  is  discour- 
aged and  ridiculed  in  this.  We  do  not 
expect  the  little  boy  to  manifest  a  father's 
love  and  care  for  an  imitation  child — but 
we  do  expect  the  little  girl  to  show  maternal 
feelings  for  her  imitation  baby.  It  has  not 
yet  occurred  to  us  that  this  is  monstrous. 

Little  children  should  not  be  expected  to 
show,  in  painful  precocity,  feelings  which 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  111 

ought  never  to  be  experienced  till  they  come 
at  the  proper  age.  Our  kittens  play  at  cat- 
sports,  little  Tom  and  Tabby  together;  but 
little  Tabby  does  not  play  she  is  a  mother! 

Beyond  the  continuous  dolls  and  their 
continuous  dressing,  we  provide  for  our 
little  girls  tea  sets  and  kitchen  sets, 
doll's  houses,  little  workboxes — the  imita- 
tion tools  of  their  narrow  trades.  For 
the  boy  there  is  a  larger  choice.  We 
make  for  them  not  only  the  essentially 
masculine  toys  of  combat — all  the  enginery 
of  mimic  war ;  but  also  the  models  of  human 
things,  like  boats,  railroads,  wagons.  For 
them,  too,  are  the  comprehensive  toys  of  the 
centuries,  the  kite,  the  top,  the  ball.  As  the 
boy  gets  old  enough  to  play  the  games  that 
require  skill,  he  enters  the  world-lists,  and 
the  little  sister,  left  inside,  with  her  ever- 
lasting dolls,  learns  that  she  is  "only  a  girl," 
and  "mustn't  play  with  boys — boys  are 
so  rough!"  She  has  her  doll  and  her  tea  set. 
She  "plays  house."  If  very  active  she  may 
jump  rope,  in  solitary  enthusiasm,  or  in 
combination  of  from  two  to  four.  Her 
brother  is  playing  games.     From  this  time 


112  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

on  he  plays  the  games  of  the  world.  The 
"sporting  page"  should  be  called  "the  Man's 
Page"  as  that  array  of  recipes,  fashions  and 
cheap  advice  is  called  "the  Woman's  Page." 

One  of  the  immediate  educational  advan- 
tages of  the  boy's  position  is  that  he  learns 
"team  work."  This  is  not  a  masculine 
characteristic,  it  is  a  human  one;  a  social 
power.  Women  are  equally  capable  of  it 
by  nature;  but  not  by  education.  Tending 
one's  imitation  baby  is  not  team-work;  nor 
is  playing  house.  The  little  girl  is  kept 
forever  within  the  limitations  of  her  mother's 
"sphere"  of  action;  while  the  boy  learns  life, 
and  fancies  that  new  growth  is  due  to  his 
superior  sex. 

Now  there  are  certain  essential  distinc- 
tions in  the  sexes,  which  would  manifest 
themselves  to  some  degree  even  in  normally 
reared  children;  as  for  instance  the  little 
male  would  be  more  given  to  fighting  and 
destroying;  the  little  female  more  to  caring 
for  and  constructing  things. 

"Boys  are  so  destructive!"  we  say  with 
modest  pride — as  if  it  was  in  some  way  a 
credit  to  them.    But  early  youth  is  not  the 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  113 

time  to  display  sex  distinction;  and  they 
should  be  discouraged  rather  than  approved. 

The  games  of  the  world,  now  the  games 
of  men,  easily  fall  into  two  broad  classes — 
games  of  skill  and  games  of  chance. 

The  interest  and  pleasure  in  the  latter  is 
purely  human,  and  as  such  is  shared  by  the 
two  sexes  even  now.  Women,  in  the 
innocent  beginnings  or  the  vicious  extremes 
of  this  line  of  amusement,  make  as  wild 
gamblers  as  men.  At  the  races,  at  the 
roulette  wheel,  at  the  bridge  table,  this  is 
clearly  seen. 

In  games  of  skill  we  have  a  different 
showing.  Most  of  these  are  developed  by 
and  for  men;  but  when  they  are  allowed, 
women  take  part  in  them  with  interest  and 
success.  In  card  games,  in  chess,  checkers, 
and  the  like,  in  croquet  and  tennis,  they  play, 
and  play  well  if  well-trained.  Where  they 
fall  short  in  so  many  games,  and  are  so 
wholly  excluded  in  others,  is  not  for  lack  of 
human  capacity,  but  for  lack  of  masculinity. 
Most  games  are  male.  In  their  element  of 
desire  to  win,  to  get  the  prize,  they  are  male : 
and  in  their  universal  attitude  of  competi- 


114  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

tion  they  are  male,  the  basic  spirit  of  desire 
and  of  combat  working  out  through  subtle 
modern  forms. 

There  is  something  inherently  masculine 
also  in  the  universal  dominance  of  the  pro- 
jectile in  their  games.  The  ball  is  the  one 
unescapable  instrument  of  sport.  From  the 
snapped  marble  of  infancy  to  the  flying 
missile  of  the  bat,  this  form  endures.  To 
send  something  forth  with  violence ;  to  throw 
it,  bat  it,  kick  it,  shoot  it;  this  impulse  seems 
to  date  back  to  one  of  the  twin  forces  of  the 
universe — the  centrifugal  and  centripetal 
energies  between  which  swing  the  planets. 

The  basic  feminine  impulse  is  to  gather, 
to  put  together,  to  construct;  the  basic 
masculine  impulse  to  scatter,  to  disseminate, 
to  destroy.  It  seems  to  give  pleasure  to  a 
man  to  bang  something  and  drive  it  from 
him;  the  harder  he  hits  it  and  the  farther  it 
goes  the  better  pleased  he  is. 

Games  of  this  sort  will  never  appeal  to 
women.  They  are  not  wrong;  not  neces- 
sarily evil  in  their  place;  our  mistake  is  in 
considering  them  as  human,  whereas  they 
are  only  masculine. 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  115 

Play,  in  the  childish  sense  is  an  expression 
of  previous  habit;  and  to  be  studied  in  that 
light.  Play  in  the  educational  sense  should 
be  encouraged  or  discouraged  to  develop  de- 
sired characteristics.  This  we  know,  and 
practice;  only  we  do  it  under  androcentric 
cannons;  confining  the  girl  to  the  narrow 
range  we  consider  proper  for  women,  and 
assisting  the  boy  to  cover  life  with  the  ex- 
pression of  masculinity,  when  we  should  be 
helping  both  to  a  more  human  development. 

Our  settled  conviction  that  men  are  people 
— the  people,  and  that  masculine  qualities 
are  the  main  desideratum  in  life,  is  what 
keeps  up  this  false  estimate  of  the  value  of 
our  present  games.  Advocates  of  football, 
for  instance,  proudly  claim  that  it  fits  a  man 
for  life.  Life — from  the  wholly  male  point 
of  view — is  a  battle,  with  a  prize.  To  want 
something  beyond  measure,  and  to  fight  to 
get — that  is  the  simple  proposition.  This 
view  of  life  finds  its  most  naive  expression 
in  predatory  warfare;  and  still  tends  to 
make  predatory  warfare  of  the  later  and 
more  human  processes  of  industry.  Be- 
cause they  see  life  in  this  way  they  imagine 


116  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

that  skill  and  practice  in  the  art  of  fighting, 
especially  in  collective  fighting,  is  so  valu- 
able in  our  modern  life.  This  is  an  archaism 
which  would  be  laughable  if  it  were  not  so 
dangerous  in  its  effects. 

The  valuable  processes  to-day  are  those 
of  invention,  discovery,  all  grades  of  in- 
dustry, and,  most  especially  needed,  the 
capacity  for  honest  service  and  administra- 
tion of  our  immense  advantages.  These  are 
not  learned  on  the  football  field. 

This  spirit  of  desire  and  combat  may  be 
seen  further  in  all  parts  of  this  great  subject. 
It  has  developed  into  a  cult  of  sportsman- 
ship ;  so  universally  accepted  among  men  as 
of  superlative  merits  as  to  quite  blind  them 
to  other  standards  of  judgment. 

In  the  Cook-Peary  controversy  of  1909, 
this  canon  was  made  manifest.  Here,  one 
man  had  spent  a  lifetime  in  trying  to  ac- 
complishing something;  and  at  the  eleventh 
hour  succeeded.  Then,  coming  out  in  the 
rich  triumph  long  deferred,  he  finds  another 
man,  of  character  well  known  to  him,  im- 
pudently and  falsely  claiming  that  he  had 
done  it  first.    Mr.  Peary  expressed  himself, 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  117 

quite  restrainedly  and  correctly,  in  regard 
to  the  effrontery  and  falsity  of  this  claim — 
and  all  the  country  rose  up  and  denounced 
him  as  "unsportsmanlike!" 

Sport  and  the  canons  of  sport  are  so  dom- 
inant in  the  masculine  mind  that  what  they 
considered  a  deviation  from  these  standards 
was  of  far  more  importance  than  the  ques- 
tion of  fact  involved;  to  say  nothing  of  the 
moral  obliquity  of  one  lying  to  the  whole 
world,  for  money;  and  that  at  the  cost  of 
another's  hard-won  triumph. 

If  women  had  condemned  the  conduct  of 
one  or  the  other  as  "not  good  housewifery," 
this  would  have  been  considered  a  most 
puerile  comment.  But  to  be  "unsportsman- 
like" is  the  unpardonable  sin. 

Owing  to  our  warped  standards  we  glar- 
ingly misjudge  the  attitude  of  the  two 
sexes  in  regard  to  their  amusements.  Of 
late  years  more  women  than  ever  before 
have  taken  to  playing  cards;  and  some,  un- 
fortunately, play  for  money.  A  steady 
stream  of  comment  and  blame  follows  upon 
this.  The  amount  of  card  playing  among 
men — and  the  amount  of  money  lost  and 


118  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

won,     does     not     produce     an     equivalent 
comment. 

Quite  aside  from  this  one  field  of  dissipa- 
tion, look  at  the  share  of  life,  of  time,  of 
strength,  of  money,  given  by  men  to  their 
wide  range  of  recreation.  The  primitive 
satisfaction  of  hunting  and  fishing  they 
maintain  at  enormous  expense.  This  is  the 
indulgence  of  a  most  rudimentary  impulse; 
pre-social  and  largely  pre-human,  of  no 
service  save  as  it  affects  bodily  health,  and 
of  a  most  deterring  influence  on  real  human 
development.  Where  hunting  and  fishing 
is  of  real  human  service,  done  as  a  means  of 
livelihood,  it  is  looked  down  upon  like  any 
other  industry;  it  is  no  longer  "sport." 

The  human  being  kills  to  eat,  or  to  sell 
and  eat  from  the  returns;  he  kills  for  the 
creature's  hide  or  tusks,  for  use  of  some 
sort,  or  to  protect  his  crops  from  vermin, 
his  flocks  from  depredation;  but  the  sports- 
man kills  for  the  gratification  of  a  primeval 
instinct,  and  under  rules  of  an  arbitrary 
cult.  "Game"  creatures  are  his  prey;  bird, 
beast  or  fish  that  is  hard  to  catch,  that 
requires  some  skill  to  slay;  that  will  give 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  119 

him  not  mere  meat  and  bones,  but  "the 
pleasure  of  the  chase." 

The  pleasure  of  the  chase  is  a  very  real 
one.  It  is  exemplified,  in  its  broad  sense  in 
children's  play.  The  running  and  catching 
games,  the  hiding  and  finding  games,  are 
always  attractive  to  our  infancy,  as  they  are 
to  that  of  cubs  and  kittens.  But  the  long 
continuance  of  this  indulgence  among 
mature  civilized  beings  is  due  to  their 
masculinity.  That  group  of  associated  sex 
instincts,  which  in  the  woman  prompts  to 
the  patient  service  and  fierce  defence  of  the 
little  child,  in  the  man  has  its  deepest  root 
in  seeking,  pursuing  and  catching.  To  hunt 
is  more  than  a  means  of  obtaining  food,  in 
his  long  ancestry;  it  is  to  follow  at  any  cost, 
to  seek  through  all  difficulties,  to  struggle 
for  and  secure  the  central  prize  of  his  being 
— a  mate. 

His  "protective  instincts"  are  far  later 
and  more  superficial.  To  support  and  care 
for  his  wife,  his  children,  is  a  recent  habit, 
in  plain  sight  historically;  but  "the  pleasure 
of  the  chase"  is  older  than  that.  We  should 
remember  that  associate  habits  and  impulses 


120  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

last  for  ages  upon  ages  in  living  forms;  as 
in  the  tree-climbing  instincts  of  our  earliest 
years,  of  simian  origin;  and  the  love  of 
water,  which  dates  hack  through  unmeas- 
ured time.  Where  for  millions  of  years  the 
strongest  pleasure  a  given  organism  is  fitted 
for,  is  obtained  by  a  certain  group  of 
activities,  those  activities  will  continue  to 
give  pleasure  long  after  their  earlier  use  is 
gone. 

This  is  why  men  enjoy  "the  ardor  of 
pursuit"  far  more  than  women.  It  is  an 
essentially  masculine  ardor.  To  come  easily 
by  what  he  wants  does  not  satisfy  him.  He 
wants  to  want  it.  He  wants  to  hunt  it,  seek 
it,  chase  it,  catch  it.  He  wants  it  to  be 
"game."  He  is  by  virtue  of  his  sex  a 
sportsman. 

There  is  no  reason  why  these  special 
instincts  should  not  be  gratified  so  long  as 
it  does  no  harm  to  the  more  important  social 
processes;  but  it  is  distinctly  desirable  that 
we  should  understand  their  nature.  The 
reason  why  we  have  the  present  over- 
whelming mass  of  "sporting  events,"  from 
the  ball  game  to  the    prize    fight,    is    be- 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  121 

cause  our  civilization  is  so  overwhelmingly 
masculine.  We  shall  criticize  them  more 
justly  when  we  see  that  all  this  mass  of 
indulgence  is  in  the  first  place  a  form  of 
sex-expression,  and  in  the  second  place  a 
survival  of  instincts  older  than  the  oldest 
savagery. 

Besides  our  games  and  sports  we  have 
a  large  field  of  "amusements"  also  worth 
examining.  We  not  only  enjoy  doing 
things,  but  we  enjoy  seeing  them  done 
by  others.  In  these  highly  specialized  days 
most  of  our  amusement  consists  in  paying 
two  dollars  to  sit  three  hours  and  see  other 
people  do  tilings. 

This  in  its  largest  sense  is  wholly  human. 
We,  as  social  creatures,  can  enjoy  a 
thousand  forms  of  expression  quite  beyond 
the  personal.  The  birds  must  each  sing  his 
own  song;  the  crickets  chirp  in  millionfold 
performance ;  but  the  human  beings  feels  the 
deep  thrill  of  joy  in  their  special  singers, 
actors,  dancers,  as  well  as  in  their  own 
personal  attempts.  That  we  should  find 
pleasure  in  watching  one  another  is 
humanly  natural,  but  what  it  is  we  watch,, 


122  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

the  kind  of  pleasure  and  the  kind  of  per- 
formance, opens  a  wide  field  of  choice. 

We  know,  for  instance,  something  of  the 
crude  excesses  of  aboriginal  Australian 
dances;  we  know  more  of  the  gross  license 
of  old  Rome;  we  know  the  breadth  of  the 
jokes  in  medieval  times,  and  the  childish 
brutality  of  the  bull-ring  and  the  cockpit. 
We  know,  in  a  word,  that  amusements  vary ; 
that  they  form  a  ready  gauge  of  character 
and  culture;  that  they  have  a  strong  educa- 
tional influence  for  good  or  bad.  What  we 
have  not  hitherto  observed  is  the  predomi- 
nant masculine  influence  on  our  amusements. 
If  we  recall  once  more  the  statement  with 
regard  to  entertaining  anecdotes,  "There 
are  thirty  good  stories  in  the  world,  and 
twenty-nine  of  them  cannot  be  told  to 
women,"  we  get  a  glaring  sidelight  on  the 
masculine  specialization  in  jokes. 

"Women  have  no  sense  of  humor"  has 
been  frequently  said,  when  "Women  have 
not  a  masculine  sense  of  humor"  would  be 
truer.  If  women  had  thirty  "good  stories" 
twenty-nine  of  which  could  not  be  told  to 
men,  it  is  possible  that  men,  if  they  heard 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  123 

some  of  the  twenty-nine,  would  not  find 
them  funny.  The  over-weight  of  one  sex  has 
told  in  our  amusements  as  everywhere  else. 
Because  men  are  further  developed  in 
humanity  than  women  are  as  yet,  they  have 
built  and  organized  great  places  of  amuse- 
ment; because  they  carried  into  their 
humanity  their  unchecked  masculinity,  they 
have  made  these  amusements  to  correspond. 
Dramatic  expression,  is  in  its  true  sense,  not 
only  a  human  distinction,  but  one  of  our 
noblest  arts.  It  is  allied  with  the  highest 
emotions;  is  religious,  educational,  patriotic, 
covering  the  whole  range  of  human  feeling. 
Through  it  we  should  be  able  continually  to 
express,  in  audible,  visible  forms,  alive  and 
moving,  whatever  phase  of  life  we  most 
enjoyed  or  wished  to  see.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  drama  led  life;  lifted,  taught, 
inspired,  enlightened.  Now  its  main  func- 
tion is  to  amuse.  Under  the  demand  for 
amusement,  it  has  cheapened  and  coarsened, 
and  now  the  thousand  vaudeville  and  pic- 
ture shows  give  us  the  broken  fragments  of 
a  degraded  art  of  which  our  one  main 
demand  is  that  it  shall  make  us  laugh. 


124  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

There  are  many  causes  at  work  here;  and 
while  this  study  seeks  to  show  in  various 
fields  one  cause,  it  does  not  claim  that  cause 
is  the  only  one.  Our  economic  conditions 
have  enormous  weight  upon  our  amuse- 
ments, as  on  all  other  human  phenomena; 
but  even  under  economic  pressure  the  reac- 
tions of  men  and  women  are  often  dissimilar. 
Tired  men  and  women  both  need  amuse- 
ment, the  relaxation  and  restful  change  of 
irresponsible  gayety.  The  great  majority 
of  women,  who  work  longer  hours  than  any 
other  class,  need  it  desperately  and  never  get 
it.  Amusement,  entertainment,  recreation, 
should  be  open  to  us  all,  enjoyed  by  all.  This 
is  a  human  need,  and  not  a  distinction  of 
either  sex.  Like  most  human  things  it  is 
not  only  largely  monopolized  by  men,  but 
masculized  throughout.  Many  forms  of 
amusement  are  for  men  only;  more  for  men 
mostly ;  all  are  for  men  if  they  choose  to  go. 

The  entrance  of  women  upon  the  stage, 
and  their  increased  attendance  at  theatres 
has  somewhat  modified  the  nature  of  the 
performance;  even  the  "refined  vaudeville" 
now  begins  to  show  the  influence  of  women. 


GAMES  AND  SPORTS  125 

It  would  be  no  great  advantage  to  have  this 
department  of  human  life  feminized;  the 
improvement  desired  is  to  have  it  less  mascu- 
lized;  to  reduce  the  excessive  influence  of 
one,  and  to  bring  out  those  broad  human 
interests  and  pleasures  which  men  and 
women  can  equally  participate  in  and  enjoy. 


126  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  VII 


ETHICS  AND   RELIGION 


THE  laws  of  physics  were  at  work 
before  we  were  on  earth,  and  con- 
tinued to  work  on  us  long  before 
we  had  intelligence  enough  to  perceive,  much 
less  understand,  them.  Our  proven  knowl- 
edge of  these  processes  constitutes  "the 
science  of  physics";  but  the  laws  were  there 
before  the  science. 

Physics  is  the  science  of  material  relation, 
how  things  and  natural  forces  work  with  and 
on  one  another.  Ethics  is  the  science  of 
social  relation,  how  persons  and  social  forces 
work  with  and  on  one  another. 

Ethics  is  to  the  human  world  what  physics 
is  to  the  material  world;  ignorance  of  ethics 
leaves  us  in  the  same  helpless  position  in 
regard  to  one  another   that  ignorance   of 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  127 

physics  left  us  in  regard  to  earth,  air,  fire 
and  water. 

To  be  sure,  people  lived  and  died  and 
gradually  improved,  while  yet  ignorant  of 
the  physical  sciences ;  they  developed  a  rough 
"rule  of  thumb"  method,  as  animals  do,  and 
used  great  forces  without  understanding 
them.  But  their  lives  were  safer  and  their 
improvement  more  rapid  as  they  learned 
more,  and  began  to  make  servants  of  the 
forces  which  had  been  their  masters. 

We  have  progressed,  lamely  enough,  with 
terrible  loss  and  suffering,  from  stark 
savagery  to  our  present  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion; we  shall  go  on  more  safely  and  swiftly 
when  we  learn  more  of  the  science  of  ethics. 

Let  us  note  first  that  while  the  underlying 
laws  of  ethics  remain  steady  and  reliable, 
human  notions  of  them  have  varied  widely 
and  still  do  so.  In  different  races,  ages, 
classes,  sexes,  different  views  of  ethics 
obtain ;  the  conduct  of  the  people  is  modified 
by  their  views,  and  their  prosperity  is 
modified  by  their  conduct. 

Primitive  man  became  very  soon  aware 
that    conduct    was    of    importance.       As 


128  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

consciousness  increased,  with  the  power  to 
modify  action  from  within,  instead  of  help- 
lessly reacting  to  stimuli  from  without,  there 
arose  the  crude  first  codes  of  ethics,  the 
"Thou  shalt"  and  "Thou  shalt  not"  of  the 
blundering  savage.  It  was  mostly  "Thou 
shalt  not."  Inhibition,  the  checking  of  an 
impulse  proven  disadvantageous,  was  an 
earlier  and  easier  form  of  action  than  the 
later  human  power  to  consciously  decide  on 
and  follow  a  course  of  action  with  no 
stimulus  but  one's  own  will. 

Primitive  ethics  consists  mostly  of  tabus 
— the  things  that  are  forbidden;  and  all  our 
dim  notions  of  ethics  to  this  day,  as  well  as 
most  of  our  religions,  deal  mainly  with 
forbidding. 

This  is  almost  the  whole  of  our  nursery 
government,  to  an  extent  shown  by  the  well- 
worn  tale  of  the  child  who  said  her  name 
was  "Mary."  "Mary  what?"  they  asked 
her.  And  she  answered,  "Mary  Don't."  It 
is  also  the  main  body  of  our  legal  systems — a 
complex  mass  of  prohibitions  and  preven- 
tions. And  even  in  manners  and  conven- 
tions,  the   things   one   should   not   do    far 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  129 

outnumber  the  things  one  should.  A  general 
policy  of  negation  colors  our  conceptions  of 
ethics  and  religion. 

When  the  positive  side  began  to  be 
developed,  it  was  at  first  in  purely  arbitrary 
and  artificial  form.  The  followers  of  a  given 
religion  were  required  to  go  through  certain 
motions,  as  prostrating  themselves,  kneeling, 
and  the  like;  they  were  required  to  bring 
tribute  to  the  gods  and  their  priests,  sacri- 
fices, tithes,  oblations;  they  were  set  little 
special  performances  to  go  through  at  given 
times,  the  range  of  things  forbidden  was 
broad;  the  range  of  tilings  commanded  was 
narrow.  The  Christian  religion,  practically 
interpreted,  requires  a  fuller  "change  of 
heart"  and  change  of  life  than  any  preced- 
ing it;  which  may  account  at  once  for  its 
wide  appeal  to  enlighten  peoples,  and  to  its 
scarcity  of  application. 

Again,  in  surveying  the  field,  it  is  seen 
that  as  our  grasp  of  ethical  values  widened, 
as  we  called  more  and  more  acts  and  tend- 
encies "right"  and  "wrong,"  we  have  shown 
astonishing  fluctuations  and  vagaries  in  our 


130  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

judgment.  Not  only  in  our  religions,  which 
have  necessarily  upheld  each  its  own  set  of 
prescribed  actions  as  most  "right,"  and  its 
own  special  prohibitions  as  most  "wrong;" 
but  in  our  beliefs  about  ethics  and  our  real 
conduct,  we  have  varied  absurdly. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  ethical  concept 
among  "gentlemen"  a  century  or  so  since, 
which  put  the  paying  of  one's  gambling 
debts  as  a  well-nigh  sacred  duty,  and  the 
paying  of  a  tradesman  who  had  fed  and 
clothed  one  as  a  quite  negligible  matter.  If 
the  process  of  gambling  was  of  social  service, 
and  the  furnishing  of  food  and  clothes  was 
not,  this  might  be  good  ethics;  but  as  the 
contrary  is  true,  we  have  to  account  for  this 
peculiar  view  on  other  grounds. 

Again,  where  in  Japan  a  girl,  to  maintain 
her  parents,  is  justified  in  leading  a  life  of 
shame,  we  have  a  peculiar  ethical  standard 
difficult  for  Western  minds  to  appreciate. 
Yet  in  such  an  instance  as  is  described  in 
"Auld  Robin  Gray,"  we  see  precisely  the 
same  code;  the  girl,  to  benefit  her  parents, 
marries  a  rich  old  man  she  does  not  love — 
which  is  to  lead  a  life  of  shame.    The  ethical 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  131 

view  which  justifies  this,  puts  the  benefit  of 
parents  above  the  benefit  of  children,  robs 
the  daughter  of  happiness  and  motherhood, 
injures  posterity  to  assist  ancestors. 

This  is  one  of  the  products  of  that  very 
early  religion,  ancestor  worship ;  and  here  we 
lay  a  finger  on  a  distinctly  masculine 
influence. 

We  know  little  of  ethical  values  during 
the  matriarchate ;  whatever  they  were,  they 
must  have  depended  for  sanction  on  a  cult 
of  promiscuous  but  efficient  maternity.  Our 
recorded  history  begins  in  the  patriarchal 
period,  and  it  is  its  ethics  alone  which  we 
know. 

The  mother  instinct,  throughout  nature, 
is  one  of  unmixed  devotion,  of  love  and 
service,  care  and  defense,  with  no  self- 
interest.  The  animal  father,  in  such  cases 
as  he  is  of  service  to  the  young,  assists  the 
mother  in  her  work  in  similar  fashion.  But 
the  human  father  in  the  family  with  the  male 
head  soon  made  that  family  an  instrument 
of  desire,  and  combat,  and  self-expression, 
following  the  essentially  masculine  impulses. 
The  children  were  his,  and,  if  males,  valuable 


132  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

to  serve  and  glorify  him.  In  his  dominance 
over  servile  women  and  helpless  children, 
free  rein  was  given  to  the  growth  of  pride 
and  the  exercise  of  irresponsible  tyranny. 
To  these  feelings,  developed  without  check 
for  thousands  of  years,  and  to  the  mental 
habits  resultant,  it  is  easy  to  trace  much  of 
the  bias  of  our  early  ethical  concepts. 

Perhaps  it  is  worth  while  to  repeat  here 
that  the  effort  of  this  book  is  by  no  means 
to  attribute  a  wholly  evil  influence  to  men, 
and  a  wholly  good  one  to  women;  it  is  not 
even  claimed  that  a  purely  feminine  culture 
would  have  advanced  the  world  more  suc- 
cessfully. It  does  claim  that  the  influence 
of  the  two  together  is  better  than  that  of 
either  one  alone;  and  in  special  to  point  out 
what  special  kind  of  injury  is  due  to  the 
exclusive  influence  of  one  sex  heretofore. 

We  have  to-day  reached  a  degree  of 
human  development  where  both  men  and 
women  are  capable  of  seeing  over  and  across 
the  distinctions  of  sex,  and  mutually  work- 
ing for  the  advancement  of  the  world.  Our 
progress  is,  however,  seriously  impeded  by 
what  we  may  call  the  masculine  tradition, 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  133 

the  unconscious  dominance  of  a  race  habit 
based  on  this  long  androcentric  period;  and 
it  is  well  worth  while,  in  the  interests  of  both 
sexes,  to  show  the  mischievous  effects  of  the 
predominance  of  one. 

We  have  in  our  cities  not  only  a  "double 
standard"  in  one  special  line,  but  in  nearly 
all.  Man,  as  a  sex,  has  quite  naturally 
deified  his  own  qualities  rather  than  those 
of  his  opposite.  In  his  codes  of  manners,  of 
morals,  of  laws,  in  his  early  concepts  of  God, 
his  ancient  religions,  we  see  masculinity 
written  large  on  every  side.  Confining 
women  wholly  to  their  feminine  functions, 
he  has  required  of  them  only  what  he  called 
feminine  virtues;  and  the  one  virtue  he  has 
demanded,  to  the  complete  overshadowing 
of  all  others,  is  measured  by  wholly  mascu- 
line requirements. 

In  the  interests  of  health  and  happiness, 
monogamous  marriage  proves  its  superior- 
ity in  our  race  as  it  has  in  others.  It  is  essen- 
tial to  the  best  growth  of  humanity  that  we 
practice  the  virtue  of  chastity ;  it  is  a  human 
virtue,  not  a  feminine  one.  But  in  the  mas- 
culine hands  this  virtue  was  enforced  upon 


134  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

women  under  penalties  of  hideous  cruelty, 
and  quite  ignored  by  men.  Masculine  ethics, 
colored  by  masculine  instincts,  always  domi- 
nated by  sex,  has  at  once  recognized  the 
value  of  chastity  in  the  woman,  which  is 
right;  punished  its  absence  unfairly,  which 
is  wrong;  and  then  reversed  the  whole 
matter  when  applied  to  men,  which  is  ridicu- 
lous. 

Ethical  laws  are  laws — not  idle  notions. 
Chastity  is  a  virtue  because  it  promotes 
human  welfare — not  because  men  happen  to 
prize  it  in  women  and  ignore  it  themselves. 
The  underlying  reason  for  the  whole  thing 
is  the  benefit  of  the  child;  and  to  that  end 
a  pure  and  noble  fatherhood  is  requisite,  as 
well  as  such  a  motherhood.  Under  the  limi- 
tations of  a  too  masculine  ethics,  we  have 
developed  on  this  one  line  social  conditions 
which  would  be  absurdly  funny  if  they  were 
not  so  horrible. 

Religion,  be  it  noticed,  does  not  bear  out 
this  attitude.  The  immense  human  need  of 
religion,  the  noble  human  character  of  the 
great  religious  teachers,  has  always  set  its 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  135 

standards,  when  first  established,  ahead  of 
human  conduct. 

Some  there  are,  men  of  learning  and 
authority,  who  hold  that  the  deadening  im- 
mobility of  our  religions,  their  resistance 
to  progress  and  relentless  preservation  of 
primitive  ideals,  is  due  to  the  conservatism 
of  women.  Men,  they  say,  are  progressive 
by  nature ;  women  are  conservative.  Women 
are  more  religious  than  men,  and  so  preserve 
old  religious  forms  unchanged  after  men 
have  outgrown  them. 

If  we  saw  women  in  absolute  freedom, 
with  a  separate  religion  devised  by  women, 
practiced  by  women,  and  remaining  un- 
changed through  the  centuries;  while  men, 
on  the  other  hand,  bounded  bravely  for- 
ward, making  new  ones  as  fast  as  they  were 
needed,  this  belief  might  be  maintained. 
But  what  do  we  see?  All  the  old  religions 
made  by  men,  and  forced  on  the  women 
whether  they  liked  it  or  not.  Often  women 
not  even  considered  as  part  of  the  scheme — 
denied  souls — given  a  much  lower  place 
in  the  system — going  from  the  service 
of    their    father's    goods    to    the    service 


136  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

of  their  husbands — having  none  of  their  own. 
We  see  religions  which  make  practically  no 
place  for  women,  as  with  the  Moslem,  as 
rigidly  bigoted  and  unchanging  as  any 
other. 

We  see  also  this:  that  the  wider  and 
deeper  the  religion,  the  more  human,  the 
more  it  calls  for  practical  application — as  in 
Christianity — the  more  it  appeals  to  women. 
Further,  in  the  diverging  sects  of  the 
Christian  religion,  we  find  that  its  progres- 
siveness  is  to  be  measured  not  by  the  num- 
bers of  its  women  adherents,  but  by  their 
relative  freedom.  The  women  of  America, 
who  belong  to  a  thousand  sects,  who  follow 
new  ones  with  avidity,  who  even  make  them, 
and  who  also  leave  them  all  as  men  do,  are 
women,  as  well  as  those  of  Spain,  who 
remain  contented  Romanists;  but  in  Amer- 
ica the  status  of  women  is  higher. 

The  fact  is  this:  a  servile  womanhood  is 
in  a  state  of  arrested  development,  and  as 
such  does  form  a  ground  for  the  retention 
of  ancient  ideas.  But  this  is  due  to  the  con- 
dition of  servility,  not  to  womanhood,  that 
women  at  present  are  the  bulwark  of  the 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  137 

older  forms  of  our  religions  is  due  to  the 
action  of  two  classes  of  men :  the  men  of  the 
world,  who  keep  women  in  their  restricted 
position,  and  the  men  of  the  church,  who 
take  every  advantage  of  the  limitations  of 
women.  When  we  have  for  the  first  time 
in  history  a  really  civilized  womanhood,  we 
can  then  judge  better  of  its  effect  on 
religion. 

Meanwhile,  we  can  see  quite  clearly  the 
effect  of  manhood.  Keeping  in  mind  those 
basic  masculine  impulses — desire  and  com- 
bat— we  see  them  reflected  from  high  heaven 
in  their  religious  concepts.  Reward !  Some- 
thing to  want  tremendously  and  struggle  to 
achieve !  This  is  a  concept  perfectly  mascu- 
line and  most  imperfectly  religious.  A 
religion  is  partly  explanation — a  theory  of 
life;  it  is  partly  emotion — an  attitude  of 
mind;  it  is  partly  action — a  system  of 
morals.  Man's  special  effect  on  this  large 
field  of  human  development  is  clear.  He 
pictured  his  early  gods  as  like  to  himself, 
and  they  behaved  in  accordance  with  his 
ideals.  In  the  dimmest,  oldest  religions, 
nearest  the  matriarchate,  we  find  great  god- 


138  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

desses — types  of  Motherhood,  Mother-love, 
Mother-care  and  Service.  But  under  mas- 
culine dominance,  Isis  and  Ashteroth 
dwindle  away  to  an  alluring  Aphrodite — 
not  Womanhood — for  the  Child  and  the 
World — but  the  incarnation  of  female  at- 
tractiveness for  man. 

As  the  idea  of  heaven  developed  in  the 
man's  mind  it  became  the  Happy  Hunting 
Ground  of  the  savage,  the  beery  and  gory 
Valhalla  of  the  Norseman,  the  vuluptuous, 
many-houri-ed  Paradise  of  the  Mohamme- 
dan. These  are  men's  heavens  all.  Women 
have  never  been  so  fond  of  hunting,  beer  or 
blood ;  and  their  houris  would  be  of  the  other 
kind.  It  may  be  said  that  the  early  Christian 
idea  of  heaven  is  by  no  means  planned  for 
men.  That  is  true,  and  is  perhaps  the 
reason  why  it  has  never  had  so  compelling 
an  attraction  for  them. 

Very  early  in  his  vague  efforts  towards 
religious  expression,  man  voiced  his  second 
strongest  instinct — that  of  combat.  His 
universe  is  always  dual,  always  a  scene  of 
combat.  Born  with  that  impulse,  exercising 
it  continually,  he  naturally  assumed  it  to  be 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  139 

the  major  process  in  life.  It  is  not. 
Growth  is  the  major  process.  Combat 
is  a  useful  subsidiary  process,  chiefly  valu- 
able for  its  initial  use,  to  transmit  the 
physical  superiority  of  the  victor.  Psychic 
and  social  advantages  are  not  thus  secured 
or  transmitted. 

In  no  one  particular  is  the  androcentric 
character  of  our  common  thought  more 
clearly  shown  than  in  the  general  deification 
of  what  are  now  described  as  "conflict 
stimuli."  That  which  is  true  of  the  male 
creature  as  such  is  assumed  to  be  true  of  life 
in  general ;  quite  naturally,  but  by  no  means 
correctly.  To  this  universal  masculine  error 
we  may  trace  in  the  field  of  religion  and 
ethics  the  great  devil  theory,  which  has  for 
so  long  obscured  our  minds.  A  God  with- 
out an  Adversary  was  inconceivable  to  the 
masculine  mind.  From  this  basic  miscon- 
ception we  find  all  our  ideas  of  ethics  dis- 
torted; that  which  should  have  been  treated 
as  a  group  of  truths  to  be  learned  and  habits 
to  be  cultivated  was  treated  in  terms  of  com- 
bat, and  moral  growth  made  an  everlasting 
battle.    This  combat  theory  we  may  follow 


140  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

later  into  our  common  notions  of  discipline, 
government,  law  and  punishment;  here  is  it 
enough  to  see  its  painful  effects  in  this  pri- 
mary field  of  ethics  and  religion? 

The  third  essential  male  trait  of  self-ex- 
pression we  may  follow  from  its  innocent 
natural  form  in  strutting  cock  or  stamping 
stag  up  to  the  characteristics  we  label  vanity 
and  pride.  The  degradation  of  women  in 
forcing  them  to  adopt  masculine  methods  of 
personal  decoration  as  a  means  of  livelihood, 
has  carried  with  the  concomitant  of  personal 
vanity ;  but  to  this  day  and  at  their  worst  we 
do  not  find  in  women  the  naive  exultant 
glow  of  pride  which  swells  the  bosom  of  the 
men  who  march  in  procession  with  brass 
bands,  in  full  regalia  of  any  sort,  so  that 
it  be  gorgeous,  exhibiting  their  glories  to  all. 

It  is  this  purely  masculine  spirit  which  has 
given  to  our  early  concepts  of  Deity  the  un- 
admirable  qualities  of  boundless  pride  and 
a  thirst  for  constant  praise  and  prostrate 
admiration,  characteristics  certainly  unbefit- 
ting any  noble  idea  of  God.  Desire,  combat 
and  self-expression  all  have  had  their  un- 
avoidable influence  on  masculine  religions. 


ETHICS  AND  RELIGION  141 

What  deified  Maternity  a  purely  feminine 
culture  might  have  put  forth  we  do  not 
know,  having  had  none  such.  Women  are 
generally  credited  with  as  much  moral  sense 
as  men,  and  as  much  religious  instinct;  but 
so  far  it  has  had  small  power  to  modify  our 
prevailing  creeds. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  special  sex  attri- 
butes should  have  any  weight  in  our  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong.  Ethics  and  religion  are 
distinctly  human  concerns ;  they  belong  to  us 
as  social  factors,  not  as  physical  ones.  As 
we  learn  to  recognize  our  humanness,  and 
to  leave  our  sex  characteristics  where  they 
belong,  we  shall  at  last  learn  something 
about  ethics  as  a  simple  and  practical 
science,  and  see  that  religions  grow  as  the 
mind  grows  to  formulate  them. 

If  anyone  seeks  for  a  clear,  simple,  easily 
grasped  proof  of  our  man-made  ethics,  it  is 
to  be  found  in  a  popular  proverb.  Strug- 
gling upward  from  beast  and  savage  into 
humanness,  man  has  seen,  reverenced,  and 
striven  to  attain  various  human  virtues. 

He  was  willing  to  check  many  primitive 
impulses,  to  change  many  barbarous  habits, 


142  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

to  manifest  newer,  nobler  powers.  Much  he 
would  concede  to  Humanness,  but  not  his 
sex — that  was  beyond  the  range  of  Ethics  or 
Religion.  By  the  state  of  what  he  calls 
"morals,"  and  the  laws  he  makes  to  regulate 
them,  by  his  attitude  in  courtship  and  in 
marriage,  and  by  the  gross  anomaly  of  mili- 
tarism, in  all  its  senseless  waste  of  life  and 
wealth  and  joy,  we  may  perceive  this  little 
masculine  exception: 

"All's  fair  in  love  and  war." 


EDUCATION  143 


CHAPTER  VIII 


EDUCATION 


THE  origin  of  education  is  maternal. 
The  mother  animal  is  seen  to  teach 
her  young  what  she  knows  of  life, 
its  gains  and  losses;  and,  whether  consci- 
ously done  or  not,  this  is  education.  In  our 
human  life,  education,  even  in  its  present 
state,  is  the  most  important  process.  With- 
out it  we  could  not  maintain  ourselves,  much 
less  dominate  and  improve  conditions  as  we 
do ;  and  when  education  is  what  it  should  be, 
our  power  will  increase  far  beyond  present 
hopes. 

In  lower  animals,  speaking  generally,  the 
powers  of  the  race  must  be  lodged  in  each 
individual.  No  gain  of  personal  experience 
is  of  avail  to  the  others.  No  advantages 
remain,  save  those  physically  transmitted. 
The  narrow  limits  of  personal  gain  and  per- 


144  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

sonal  inheritance  rigidly  hem  in  sub-human 
progress.  With  us,  what  one  learns  may  be 
taught  to  the  others.  Our  life  is  social,  col- 
lective. Our  gain  is  for  all,  and  profits  us 
in  proportion  as  we  extend  it  to  all.  As  the 
human  soul  develops  in  us,  we  become  able 
to  grasp  more  fully  our  common  needs  and 
advantages;  and  with  this  growth  has  come 
the  extension  of  education  to  the  people  as 
a  whole.  Social  functions  are  developed 
under  natural  laws,  like  physical  ones,  and 
may  be  studied  similarly. 

In  the  evolution  of  this  basic  social  func- 
tion, what  has  been  the  effect  of  wholly  mas- 
culine influence? 

The  original  process,  instruction  of  indi- 
vidual child  by  individual  mother,  has  been 
largely  neglected  in  our  man-made  world. 
That  was  considered  as  a  subsidiary  sex- 
function  of  the  woman,  and  as  such,  left  to 
her  instinct.  This  is  the  main  reason  why 
we  show  such  great  progress  in  education 
for  older  children,  and  especially  for  youths, 
and  so  little  comparatively  in  that  given  to 
younger  ones. 

We  have  had  on  the  one  side  the  natural 


EDUCATION  145 

current  of  maternal  education,  with  its  first 
assistant,  the  nursemaid,  and  its  second,  the 
"dame-school";  and  on  the  other  the  influ- 
ence of  the  dominant  class,  organized  in  uni- 
versity, college  and  public  school,  slowly 
filtering  downward. 

Educational  forces  are  many.  The  child 
is  born  into  certain  conditions,  physical 
and  psychic,  and  "educated"  thereby.  He 
grows  up  into  social,  political  and  economic 
conditions,  and  is  further  modified  by  them. 
All  these  conditions,  so  far,  have  been  of 
androcentric  character;  but  what  we  call 
education  as  a  special  social  process  is  what 
the  child  is  deliberately  taught  and  sub- 
jected to;  and  it  is  here  we  may  see  the 
same  dominant  influence  so  clearly. 

This  conscious  education  was,  for  long, 
given  to  boys  alone,  the  girls  being  left  to 
maternal  influence,  each  to  learn  what  her 
mother  knew,  and  no  more.  This  very  clear 
instance  of  the  masculine  theory  is  glaring 
enough  by  itself  to  rest  a  case  on.  It  shows 
how  absolute  was  the  assumption  that  the 
world  was  composed  of  men,  and  men  alone 
were  to  be  fitted  for  it.     Women  were  no 


146  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

part  of  the  world,  and  needed  no  training 
for  its  uses.  As  females  they  were  born  and 
not  made;  as  human  beings  they  were  only 
servants,  trained  as  such  by  their  servant 
mothers. 

This  system  of  education  we  are  out- 
growing more  swiftly  with  each  year.  The 
growing  humanness  of  women,  and  its 
recognition,  is  forcing  an  equal  education 
for  boy  and  girl.  When  this  demand  was 
first  made,  by  women  of  unusual  calibre, 
and  by  men  sufficiently  human  to  overlook 
sex-prejudice,  how  was  it  met?  What  was 
the  attitude  of  woman's  "natural  protector" 
when  she  began  to  ask  some  share  in  human 
life? 

Under  the  universal  assumption  that  men 
alone  were  humanity,  that  the  world  was 
masculine  and  for  men  only,  the  efforts  of 
the  women  were  met  as  a  deliberate  attempt 
to  "unsex"  themselves  and  become  men.  To 
be  a  woman  was  to  be  ignorant,  unedu- 
cated ;  to  be  wise,  educated,  was  to  be  a  man. 
Women  were  not  men,  visibly;  therefore 
they  could  not  be  educated,  and  ought  not 
to  want  to  be. 


EDUCATION  147 

Under  this  androcentric  prejudice,  the 
equal  extension  of  education  to  women  was 
opposed  at  every  step,  and  is  still  opposed 
by  many.  Seeing  in  women  only  sex,  and 
not  humanness,  they  would  confine  her 
exclusively  to  feminine  interests.  This  is 
the  masculine  view,  par  excellence.  In  spite 
of  it,  the  human  development  of  women, 
which  so  splendidly  characterizes  our  age, 
has  gone  on ;  and  now  both  women's  colleges 
and  those  for  both  sexes  offer  "the  higher 
education"  to  our  girls,  as  well  as  the  lower 
grades  in  school  and  kindergarten. 

In  the  special  professional  training,  the 
same  opposition  was  experienced,  even  more 
rancorous  and  cruel.  One  would  think  that 
on  the  entrance  of  a  few  straggling  and 
necessarily  inferior  feminine  beginners  into 
a  trade  or  profession,  those  in  possession 
would  extend  to  them  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship,  as  comrades,  extra  assistance  as 
beginners,  and  special  courtesy  as  women. 

The  contrary  occurred.  Women  were 
barred  out,  discriminated  against,  taken 
advantage  of,  as  competitors ;  and  as  women 
they  have  had  to  meet  special  danger  and 


148  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

offence  instead  of  special  courtesy.  An 
unforgetable  instance  of  this  lies  in  the  at- 
titude of  medical  colleges  toward  women 
students. 

The  men,  strong  enough,  one  would  think, 
in  numbers,  in  knowledge,  in  established 
precedent,  to  be  generous,  opposed  the  new- 
comers first  with  absolute  refusal;  then 
when  the  patient,  persistent  applicants  did 
get  inside,  both  students  and  teachers  met 
them  not  only  with  unkindness  and  unfair- 
ness, but  with  a  weapon  ingeniously  well 
chosen,  and  most  discreditable — namely, 
obscenity.  Grave  professors,  in  lecture  and 
clinic,  as  well  as  grinning  students,  used 
offensive  language,  and  played  offensive 
tricks,  to  drive  the  women  out — a  most 
androcentric  performance. 

Remember  that  the  essential  masculine 
attitude  is  one  of  opposition,  of  combat; 
his  desire  is  obtained  by  first  overcoming 
a  competitor;  and  then  see  how  this  domin- 
ant masculinity  stands  out  where  it  has  no 
possible  use  or  benefit — in  the  field  of  educa- 
tion. All  along  the  line,  man,  long  master 
of    a    subject    sex,    fought    every    step    of 


EDUCATION  149 

woman  toward  mental  equality.  Neverthe- 
less, since  modern  man  has  become  human 
enough  to  be  just,  he  has  at  last  let  her  have 
a  share  in  the  advantages  of  education;  and 
she  has  proven  her  full  power  to  appreciate 
and  use  these  advantages. 

Then  to-day  rises  a  new  cry  against 
"women  in  education."  Here  is  Mr.  Bar- 
rett Wendell,  of  Harvard,  solemnly  claim- 
ing that  teaching  women  weakens  the  intel- 
lect of  the  teacher,  and  every  now  and  then 
bursts  out  a  frantic  sputter  of  alarm  over 
the  "feminization"  of  our  schools.  It  is 
true  that  the  majority  of  teachers  are  now 
women.  It  is  true  that  they  do  have  an 
influence  on  growing  children.  It  would 
even  seem  to  be  true  that  that  is  largely 
what  women  are  for. 

But  the  male  assumes  his  influence  to  be 
normal,  human,  and  the  female  influence  as 
wholly  a  matter  of  sex;  therefore,  where 
women  teach  boys,  the  boys  become  "effemi- 
nate"— a  grievious  fall.    When  men  teach 

girls,  do  the  girls  become ?    Here  again 

we  lack  the  analogue.  Never  has  it  occurred 
to  the  androcentric    mind    to    conceive    of 


150  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

such  a  thing  as  being  too  masculine.  There 
is  no  such  word!  It  is  odd  to  notice  that 
which  ever  way  the  woman  is  placed,  she  is 
supposed  to  exert  this  degrading  influence; 
if  the  teacher,  she  effeminizes  her  pupils;  if 
the  pupil,  she  effeminizes  her  teachers. 

Now  let  us  shake  ourselves  free,  if  only 
for  a  moment,  from  the  androcentric  habit 
of  mind. 

As  a  matter  of  sex,  the  female  is  the  more 
important.  Her  share  of  the  processes 
which  sex  distinction  serves  is  by  far  greater. 
To  be  feminine — if  one  were  nothing  else, 
is  a  far  more  extensive  and  dignified  office 
than  to  be  masculine — and  nothing  else. 

But  as  a  matter  of  humanity  the  male  of 
our  species  is  at  present  far  ahead  of  the 
female.  By  this  superior  humanness,  his 
knowledge,  his  skill,  his  experience,  his 
organization  and  specialization,  he  makes 
and  manages  the  world.  All  this  is  human, 
not  male.  All  this  is  open  to  the  woman  as 
the  man  by  nature,  but  has  been  denied  her 
during  our  androcentric  culture. 

But  even  if,  in  a  purely  human  process, 


EDUCATION  151 

such  as  education,  she  does  bring  her  special 
feminine  characteristics  to  bear,  what  are 
they,  and  what  are  the  results? 

We  can  see  the  masculine  influence  every- 
where still  dominant  and  superior.  There 
is  the  first  spur,  Desire,  the  base  of  the 
reward  system,  the  incentive  of  self-interest, 
the  attitude  which  says,  "Why  should  I 
make  an  effort  unless  it  will  give  me  pleas- 
ure?" with  its  concomitant  laziness,  unwill- 
ingness to  work  without  payment.  There  is 
the  second  spur,  Combat,  the  competitive 
system,  which  sets  one  against  another,  and 
finds  pleasure  not  in  learning,  not  exercis- 
ing the  mind,  but  in  getting  ahead  of  one's 
fellows.  Under  these  two  wholly  masculine 
influences  we  have  made  the  educational 
process  a  joy  to  the  few  who  successfully 
attain,  and  a  weary  effort,  with  failure  and 
contumely  attached,  to  all  the  others.  This 
may  be  a  good  method  in  sex-competition, 
but  is  wholly  out  of  place  and  mischievous  in 
education.  Its  prevalence  shows  the  injuri- 
ous masculization  of  this  noble  social  pro- 
cess. 

What  might  we  look  for  in  a  distinctly 


152  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

feminine  influence?    What  are  these  much- 
dreaded  feminine  characteristics? 

The  maternal  ones,  of  course.  The  sex 
instincts  of  the  male  are  of  a  preliminary 
nature,  leading  merely  to  the  union  preced- 
ing parenthood.  The  sex  instincts  of  the 
female  cover  a  far  larger  field,  spending 
themselves  most  fully  in  the  lasting  love, 
the  ceaseless  service,  the  ingenuity  and 
courage  of  efficient  motherhood.  To  femin- 
ize education  would  be  to  make  it  more 
motherly.  The  mother  does  not  rear  her 
children  by  a  system  of  prizes  to  be  longed 
for  and  pursued;  nor  does  she  set  them  to 
compete  with  one  another,  giving  to  the 
conquering  child  what  he  needs,  and  to  the 
vanquished,  blame  and  deprivation.  That 
would  be  "unfeminine." 

Motherhood  does  all  it  knows  to  give  to 
each  child  what  is  most  needed,  to  teach  all 
to  their  fullest  capacity,  to  affectionately 
and  efficiently  develop  the  whole  of  them. 

But  this  is  not  what  is  meant  By  those  who 
fear  so  much  the  influence  of  women.  Accus- 
tomed to  a  wholly  male  standard  of  living, 
to  masculine  ideals,  virtues,  methods  and 


EDUCATION  153 

conditions,  they  say — and  say  with  some 
justice — that  feminine  methods  and  ideals 
would  be  destructive  to  what  they  call  "man- 
liness." For  instance,  education  to-day  is 
closely  interwoven  with  games  and  sports, 
all  of  an  excessively  masculine  nature.  "The 
education  of  a  boy  is  carried  on  largely  on 
the  playground!"  say  the  objectors  to 
women  teachers.  Women  cannot  join  them 
there;  therefore,  they  cannot  educate  them. 

What  games  are  these  in  which  woman 
cannot  join?  There  are  forms  of  fight- 
ing, of  course,  violent  and  fierce,  mod- 
ern modifications  of  the  instinct  of  sex- 
combat.  It  is  quite  true  that  women  are 
not  adapted,  or  inclined,  to  baseball  or  foot- 
ball or  any  violent  game.  They  are  per- 
fectly competent  to  take  part  in  all  normal 
athletic  development,  the  human  range  of 
agility  and  skill  is  open  to  them,  as  every- 
one knows  who  has  been  to  the  circus;  but 
they  are  not  built  for  physical  combat;  nor 
do  they  find  ceaseless  pleasure  in  throwing, 
batting  or  kicking  things. 

But  is  it  true  that  these  strenuous  games 
have   the   educational   value    attributed    to 


154  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

them?  It  seems  like  blasphemy  to  question 
it.  The  whole  range  of  male  teachers,  male 
pupils,  male  critics  and  spectators,  are  loud 
in  their  admiration  for  the  "manliness" 
developed  by  the  craft,  courage,  co-ordina- 
tive  power  and  general  "sportsmanship" 
developed  by  the  game  of  football,  for 
instance;  that  a  few  young  men  are  killed 
and  many  maimed,  is  nothing  in  compari- 
son to  these  advantages. 

Let  us  review  the  threefold  distinction  on 
which  this  whole  study  rests,  between  mas- 
culine, feminine  and  human.  Grant  that 
woman,  being  feminine,  cannot  emulate 
man  in  being  masculine — and  does  not  want 
to.  Grant  that  the  masculine  qualities  have 
their  use  and  value,  as  well  as  feminine  ones. 
There  still  remains  the  human  qualities 
shared  by  both,  owned  by  neither,  most 
important  of  all.  Education  is  a  human 
process,  and  should  develop  human  quali- 
ties— not  sex  qualities.  Surely  our  boys  are 
sufficiently  masculine,  without  needing  a 
special  education  to  make  them  more  so. 

The  error  lies  here.  A  strictly  mascu- 
line world,  proud  of  its  own  sex  and  despis- 


EDUCATION  155 

ing  the  other,  seeing  nothing  in  the  world 
but  sex,  either  male  or  female,  has  "viewed 
with  alarm"  the  steady  and  rapid  growth  of 
humanness.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  boy 
visibly  tending  to  be  an  artist,  a  musician, 
a  scientific  discoverer.  Here  is  another  boy 
not  particularly  clever  in  any  line,  nor 
ambitious  for  special  work,  though  he 
means  in  a  general  way  to  "succeed"; 
he  is,  however,  a  big,  husky  fellow,  a 
good  fighter,  mischievous  as  a  monkey,  and 
strong  in  the  virtues  covered  by  the  word 
"sportsmanship."  This  boy  we  call  "a  fine 
manly  fellow." 

We  are  quite  right.  He  is.  He  is  dis- 
tinctly and  excessively  male,  at  the  expense 
of  his  humanness.  He  may  make  a  more 
prepotent  sire  than  the  other,  though  even 
that  is  not  certain;  he  may,  and  probably 
will,  appeal  more  strongly  to  the  excessively 
feminine  girl,  who  has  even  less  humanness 
than  he;  but  he  is  not  therefore  a  better 
citizen. 

The  advance  of  civilization  calls  for 
human  qualities,  in  both  men  and  women. 
Our   educational    system    is    thwarted    and 


156  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

hindered,  not  as  Prof.  Wendell  and  his  like 
would  have  us  believe,  by  "feminization," 
but  by  an  over-weening  masculization. 

Their  position  is  a  simple  one.  "We  are 
men.  Men  are  human  beings.  Women  are 
only  women.  This  is  a  man's  world.  To 
get  on  in  it  you  must  do  it  man-fashion — i.e., 
fight,  and  overcome  the  others.  Being  civ- 
ilized in  part,  we  must  arrange  a  sort  of  "civ- 
ilized warfare,"  and  learn  to  play  the  game, 
the  old  crude,  fierce  male  game  of  combat, 
and  we  must  educate  our  boys  thereto.  No 
wonder  education  was  denied  to  women.  No 
wonder  their  influence  is  dreaded  by  an 
ultra-masculine  culture. 

It  will  change  the  system  in  time.  It  will 
gradually  establish  an  equal  place  in  life  for 
the  feminine  characteristics,  so  long  be- 
littled and  derided,  and  give  pre-eminent 
dignity  to  the  human  power. 

Physical  culture,  for  both  boys  and  girls, 
will  be  part  of  such  a  modified  system.  All 
things  that  both  can  do  together  will  be 
accepted  as  human;  but  what  either  boys  or 
girls  have  to  retire  apart  to  practice  will  be 


EDUCATION  157 

frankly  called  masculine  or  feminine,  and 
not  encouraged  in  children. 

The  most  important  qualities  are  the 
human  ones,  and  will  be  so  named  and  hon- 
ored. Courage  is  a  human  quality,  not  a 
sex-quality.  What  is  commonly  called 
courage  in  male  animals  is  mere  belliger- 
ence, the  fighting  instinct.  To  meet  an 
adversary  of  his  own  sort  is  a  universal  mas- 
culine trait;  two  father  cats  may  fight 
fiercely  each  other,  but  both  will  run  from 
a  dog  as  quickly  as  a  mother  cat.  She  has 
courage  enough,  however,  in  defense  of  her 
kittens. 

What  this  world  most  needs  to-day  in 
both  men  and  women,  is  the  power  to  recog- 
nize our  public  conditions;  to  see  the  relative 
importance  of  measures;  to  learn  the  pro- 
cesses of  constructive  citizenship.  We  need 
an  education  which  shall  give  us  facts  in  the 
order  of  their  importance;  morals  and  man- 
ners based  on  these  facts ;  and  train  our  per- 
sonal powers  with  careful  selection,  so  that 
each  may  best  serve  the  community. 

At  present,  in  the  larger  processes  of 
extra-scholastic    education,    the    advantage 


158  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

is  still  with  the  boy.  From  infancy  we  make 
the  gross  mistake  of  accentuating  sex  in  our 
children,  by  dress  and  all  its  limitations,  by 
special  teaching  of  what  is  "ladylike"  and 
"manly."  The  boy  is  allowed  a  freedom  of 
experience  far  beyond  the  girl.  He  learns 
more  of  his  town  and  city,  more  of  machin- 
ery, more  of  life,  passing  on  from  father  to 
son  the  truths  as  well  as  traditions  of  sex 
superiority. 

All  this  is  changing  before  our  eyes,  with 
the  advancing  humanness  of  women.  Not 
yet,  however,  has  their  advance  affected,  to 
any  large  extent,  the  base  of  all  education; 
the  experience  of  a  child's  first  years.  Here 
is  where  the  limitations  of  women  have 
checked  race  progress  most  thoroughly. 
Here  hereditary  influence  was  constantly 
offset  by  the  advance  of  the  male.  Social 
selection  did  develop  higher  types  of  men, 
though  sex-selection  reversed  still  insisted 
on  primitive  types  of  women.  But  the  edu- 
cative influence  of  these  primitive  women, 
acting  most  exclusively  on  the  most  suscep- 
tible years  of  life,  has  been  a  serious  deter- 
rent to  race  progress. 


EDUCATION  159 

Here  is  the  dominant  male,  largely  human- 
ized, yet  still  measuring  life  from  male 
standards.  He  sees  women  only  as  a  sex. 
(Note  here  the  criticism  of  Europeans  on 
American  women.  "Your  women  are  so 
sexless!"  they  say,  meaning  merely  that  our 
women  have  human  qualities  as  well  as  fem- 
inine.) And  children  he  considers  as  part 
and  parcel  of  the  same  domain,  both  inferior 
classes,  "women  and  children." 

I  recall  in  Rimmer's  beautiful  red  chalk 
studies,  certain  profiles  of  man,  woman  and 
child,  and  careful  explanation  that  the  pro- 
portion of  the  woman's  face  and  head  were 
far  more  akin  to  the  child  than  to  the  man. 
What  Mr.  Rimmer  should  have  shown,  and 
could  have,  by  profuse  illustration,  was  that 
the  faces  of  boy  and  girl  differ  but  slightly, 
and  the  faces  of  old  men  and  women  differ 
as  little,  sometimes  not  at  all;  while  the  face 
of  the  woman  approximates  the  human 
more  closely  than  that  of  the  man;  and  the 
child,  representing  race  more  than  sex,  is 
naturally  more  akin  to  her  than  to  him.  The 
male  preserves  more  primitive  qualities,  the 
hairiness,  the  more  pugnacious  jaws;   the 


160  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

female  is  nearer  to  the  higher  human  types. 

An  ultra-male  selection  has  chosen  women 
for  their  femininity  first,  and  next  for 
qualities  of  submissiveness  and  patient  serv- 
ice bred  by  long  ages  of  servility. 

This  servile  womanhood,  or  the  idler  and 
more  excessively  feminine  type,  has  never 
appreciated  the  real  power  and  place  of  the 
mother,  and  has  never  been  able  to  grasp 
or  to  carry  out  any  worthy  system  of  educa- 
tion for  little  children.  Any  experienced 
teacher,  man  or  woman,  will  own  how  rare 
it  is  to  find  a  mother  capable  of  a  dispas- 
sionate appreciation  of  educative  values. 
Books  in  infant  education  and  child  culture 
generally  are  read  by  teachers  more  than 
mothers,  so  our  public  libraries  prove.  The 
mother-instinct,  quite  suitable  and  sufficient 
in  animals,  is  by  no  means  equal  to  the  re- 
quirements of  civilized  life.  Animal  mother- 
hood furnishes  a  fresh  wave  of  devotion  for 
each  new  birth;  primitive  human  mother- 
hood extends  that  passionate  tenderness 
over  the  growing  family  for  a  longer  period ; 
but  neither  can  carry  education  beyond  its 
rudiments. 


EDUCATION  161 

So  accustomed  are  we  to  our  world-old 
method  of  entrusting  the  first  years  of  the 
child  to  the  action  of  untaught,  unbridled 
mother-instinct,  that  suggestions  as  to  a  bet- 
ter education  for  babies  are  received  with 
the  frank  derision  of  massed  ignorance. 

That  powerful  and  brilliant  writer,  Mrs. 
Josephine  Daskam  Bacon,  among  others, 
has  lent  her  able  pen  to  ridicule  and  obstruct 
the  gradual  awakening  of  human  intelli- 
gence in  mothers,  the  recognition  that  babies 
are  no  exception  to  the  rest  of  us  in  being 
better  off  for  competent  care  and  service. 
It  seems  delightfully  absurd  to  these  reac- 
tionaries that  ages  of  human  progress 
should  be  of  any  benefit  to  babies,  save,  in- 
deed, as  their  more  human  fathers,  spe- 
cialized and  organized,  are  able  to  provide 
them  with  better  homes  and  a  better  world 
to  grow  up  in.  The  idea  that  mothers,  more 
human,  should  specialize  and  organize  as 
well,  and  extend  to  their  babies  these  su- 
preme advantages,  is  made  a  laughing- 
stock. 

It  is  easy  and  profitable  to  laugh  with  the 
majority;  but  in  the  judgment  of  history, 


162  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

those  who  do  so,  hold  uneviable  positions. 
The  time  is  coming  when  the  human  mother 
will  recognize  the  educative  possibilities  of 
early  childhood,  learn  that  the  ability  to 
rightly  teach  little  children  is  rare  and  pre- 
cious, and  be  proud  and  glad  to  avail  them- 
selves of  it. 

We  shall  then  see  a  development  of  the 
most  valuable  human  qualities  in  our  chil- 
dren's minds  such  as  would  now  seem  wildly 
Utopian.  We  shall  learn  from  wide  and 
long  experience  to  anticipate  and  provide 
for  the  steps  of  the  unfolding  mind,  and  train 
it  through  carefully  prearranged  experi- 
ences, to  a  power  of  judgment,  of  self-con- 
trol, of  social  perception,  now  utterly  un- 
thought  of. 

Such  an  education  would  begin  at  birth; 
yes,  far  before  it,  in  the  standards  of  con- 
scious human  motherhood.  It  would  re- 
quire a  quite  different  status  of  wifehood, 
womanhood,  girlhood.  It  would  be  wholly 
impossible  if  we  were  never  to  outgrow  our 
androcentric  culture. 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         163 


CHAPTER  IX. 

"society"  and  "fashion" 

AMONG  our  many  naive  misbeliefs  is 
the  current  fallacy  that  "society"  is 
made  by  women;  and  that  women 
are  responsible  for  that  peculiar  social  mani- 
festation called  "fashion." 

Men  and  women  alike  accept  this  notion; 
the  serious  essayist  and  philosopher,  as 
well  as  the  novelist  and  paragrapher,  reflect 
it  in  their  pages.  The  force  of  inertia  acts 
in  the  domain  of  psychics  as  well  as  physics ; 
any  idea  pushed  into  the  popular  mind 
with  considerable  force  will  keep  on  going 
until  some  opposing  force — or  the  slow  re- 
sistance of  friction — stops  it  at  last. 

"Society"  consists  mostly  of  women. 
Women  carry  on  most  of  its  processes, 
therefore  women  are  its  makers  and  mas- 


164  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

ters,  they  are  responsible  for  it,  that  is  the 
general  belief. 

We  might  as  well  hold  women  responsible 
for  harems — or  prisoners  for  jails.  To  be 
helplessly  confined  to  a  given  place  or  con- 
dition does  not  prove  that  one  has  chosen 
it;  much  less  made  it. 

No;  in  an  androcentric  culture  "society," 
like  every  other  social  relation,  is  dominated 
by  the  male  and  arranged  for  his  conveni- 
ence. There  are,  of  course,  modifications 
due  to  the  presence  of  the  other  sex;  where 
there  are  more  women  than  men  there  are 
inevitable  results  of  their  influence;  but  the 
character  and  conditions  of  the  whole  per- 
formance are  dictated  by  men. 

Social  intercourse  is  the  prime  condition 
of  human  life.  To  meet,  to  mingle,  to  know 
one  another,  to  exchange,  not  only  definite 
ideas,  facts,  and  feelings,  but  to  experience 
that  vague  general  stimulus  and  enlarged 
power  that  comes  of  contact — all  this  is 
essential  to  our  happiness  as  well  as  to  our 
progress. 

This  grand  desideratum  has  always  been 
monopolized    by   men    as    far    as    possible. 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         165 

What  intercourse  was  allowed  to  women 
has  been  rigidly  hemmed  in  by  man- 
made  conventions.  Women  accept  these 
conventions,  repeat  them,  enforce  them  upon 
their  daughters;  but  they  originate  with 
men. 

The  feet  of  the  little  Chinese  girl  are 
bound  by  her  mother  and  her  nurse — but  it 
is  not  for  woman's  pleasure  that  this  crip- 
pling torture  was  invented.  The  Oriental 
veil  is  worn  by  women,  but  it  is  not  for  any 
need  of  theirs  that  veils  were  decreed  them. 

When  we  look  at  society  in  its  earlier 
form  we  find  that  the  public  house  has  al- 
ways been  with  us.  It  is  as  old  almost  as 
the  private  house;  the  need  for  association 
is  as  human  as  the  need  for  privacy.  But 
the  public  house  was — and  is — for  men  only. 
The  woman  was  kept  as  far  as  possible  at 
home.  Her  female  nature  was  supposed  to 
delimit  her  life  satisfactorily,  and  her  hu- 
man nature  was  completely  ignored. 

Under  the  pressure  of  that  human  nature 
she  has  always  rebelled  at  the  social  restric- 
tions which  surrounded  her;  and  from  the 
women  of  older  lands  gathered  at  the  well, 


166  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

or  in  the  market  place,  to  our  own  women 
on  the  church  steps  or  in  the  sewing  circle, 
they  have  ceaselessly  struggled  for  the  so- 
cial intercourse  which  was  as  much  a  law  of 
their  being  as  of  man's. 

When  we  come  to  the  modern  special  field 
that  we  call  "society,"  we  find  it  to  consist 
of  a  carefully  arranged  set  of  processes  and 
places  wherein  women  may  meet  one  another 
and  meet  men.  These  vary,  of  course,  with 
race,  country,  class  and  period;  from  the 
clean  licence  of  our  western  customs  to  the 
strict  chaperonage  of  older  lands;  but  free 
as  it  is  in  America,  even  here  there  are 
bounds. 

Men  associate  without  any  limit  but  that 
of  inclination  and  financial  capacity.  Even 
class  distinction  only  works  one  way — the 
low-class  man  may  not  mingle  with  high- 
class  women;  but  the  high-class  man  may — 
and  does — mingle  with  low-class  women.  It 
is  his  society — may  not  a  man  do  what  he  will 
with  his  own? 

Caste  distinctions,  as  have  been  ably  shown 
by  Prof.  Lester  F.  Ward,  are  relics  of  race 
distinction;  the  subordinate  caste  was  once 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         167 

a  subordinate  race;  and  while  mating,  up- 
ward, was  always  forbidden  to  the  subject 
race;  mating,  downward,  was  always  prac- 
ticed by  the  master  race. 

The  elaborate  shading  of  "the  color  line" 
in  slavery  days,  from  pure  black  up  through 
mulatto,  quadroon,  octoroon,  quinteroon, 
griffada,  mustafee,  mustee,  and  sang  d'or — 
to  white  again;  was  not  through  white 
mothers — but  white  fathers,  never  too  exclu- 
sive in  their  tastes.  Even  in  slavery,  the 
worst  horrors  were  strictly  androcentric. 

"Society"  is  strictly  guarded — that  is  its 
women  are.  As  always,  the  main  tabu  is  on 
the  woman.  Consider  carefully  the  relation 
between  "society"  and  the  growing  girl.  She 
must,  of  course  marry;  and  her  education, 
manners,  character,  must  of  course  be  pleas- 
ing to  the  prospective  wooer.  That  which 
is  desirable  in  young  girls  means,  naturally, 
that  which  is  desirable  to  men.  Of  all  culti- 
vated accompli shments  the  first  is  "inno- 
cence." Beauty  may  or  may  not  be  forth- 
coming; but  "innocence"  is  "the  chief  charm 
of  girlhood." 

Why?    What  good  does  it  do  her?  Her 


168  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

whole  life's  success  is  made  to  depend  on  her 
marrying ;  her  health  and  happiness  depends 
on  her  marrying  the  right  man.  The  more 
"innocent"  she  is,  the  less  she  knows,  the 
easier  it  is  for  the  wrong  man  to  get  her. 

As  is  so  feelingly  described  in  "The  Sor- 
rows of  Amelia,"  in  "The  Ladies'  Literary 
Cabinet,"  a  magazine  taken  by  my  grand- 
mother; "The  only  foible  which  the  delicate 
Amelia  possessed  was  an  unsuspecting 
breast  to  lavish  esteem:  Unversed  in  the 
secret  villainies  of  a  base  degenerate  world, 
she  ever  imagined  all  mankind  to  be  as  spot- 
less as  herself.  Alas  for  Amelia!  This 
fatal  credulity  was  the  source  of  all  her  mis- 
fortunes."   It  was.    It  is  yet. 

Just  face  the  facts  with  new  eyes — look 
at  it  as  if  you  had  never  seen  "society" 
before;  and  observe  the  position  of  its 
"Queen." 

Here  is  woman.  Let  us  grant  that  Mother- 
hood is  her  chief  purpose.  (As  a  female  it 
is.  As  a  human  being  she  has  others!) 
Marriage  is  our  way  of  safeguarding 
motherhood;  of  ensuring  "support"  and 
"protection"  to  the  wife  and  children. 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         169 

"Society"  is  very  largely  used  as  a  means 
to  bring  together  young  people,  to  promote 
marriage.  If  "society"  is  made  and  gov- 
erned by  women  we  should  naturally  look  to 
see  its  restrictions  and  encouragements  such 
as  would  put  a  premium  on  successful 
maternity,  and  protect  women — and  their 
children — from  the  evils  of  ill-regulated 
fatherhood. 

Do  we  find  this  ?    By  no  means. 

"Society"  allows  the  man  all  liberty — all 
privilege — all  license.  There  are  certain 
offences  which  would  exclude  him;  such  as 
not  paying  gambling  debts,  or  being  poor; 
but  offences  against  womanhood — against 
motherhood — do  not  exclude  him. 

How  about  the  reverse? 

If  "society"  is  made  by  women,  for 
women,  surely  a  misstep  by  a  helplessly 
"innocent"  girl,  will  not  injure  her  standing! 

But  it  does.  She  is  no  longer  "innocent." 
She  knows  now.  She  has  lost  her  market 
value  and  is  thrown  out  of  the  shop.  Why 
not?  It  is  his  shop — not  hers.  What 
women  may   and  may  not  be,  what   they 


170  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

must  and  must  not  do,  all  is  measured  from 
the  masculine  standard. 

A  really  feminine  "society"  based  on  the 
needs  and  pleasures  of  women,  both  as 
females  and  as  human  beings,  would  in  the 
first  place  accord  them  freedom  and  knowl- 
edge; the  knowledge  which  is  power.  It 
would  not  show  us  "the  queen  of  the  ball- 
room" in  the  position  of  a  wall-flower  unless 
favored  by  masculine  invitation;  unable  to 
eat  unless  he  brings  her  something;  unable 
to  cross  the  floor  without  his  arm.  Of  all 
blind  stultified  "royal  sluggards"  she  is  the 
archtype.  No,  a  feminine  society  would 
grant  at  least  equality  to  women  in  this,  their 
so-called  special  field. 

Its  attitude  toward  men,  however,  would 
be  rigidly  critical. 

Fancy  a  real  Mrs.  Grundy  (up  to  date 
it  has  been  a  Mr.,  his  whiskers  hidden  in  cap- 
strings)  saying,  "No,  no,  young  man.  You 
won't  do.  You've  been  drinking.  The 
habit's  growing  on  you.  You'll  make  a  bad 
husband." 

Or  still  more  severely,  "Out  with  you,  sir ! 
You've  forfeited  your  right  to  marry!    Go 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         171 

into  retirement  for  seven  years,  and  when 
you  come  back  bring  a  doctor's  certificate 
with  you." 

That  sounds  ridiculous,  doesn't  it — for 
"Society"  to  say?  It  is  ridiculous,  in  a  man's 
"society." 

The  required  dress  and  decoration  of 
"society";  the  everlasting  eating  and  drink- 
ing of  "society,"  the  preferred  amusements 
of  "society,"  the  absolute  requirements  and 
absolute  exclusions  of  "society,"  are  of  men, 
by  men,  for  men — to  paraphrase  a  thread- 
bare quotation.  And  then,  upon  all  that 
vast  edifice  of  masculine  influence,  they  turn 
upon  women  as  Adam  did;  and  blame  them 
for  severity  with  their  fallen  sisters! 
"Women  are  so  hard  upon  women!" 

They  have  to  be.  What  man  would 
"allow"  his  wife,  his  daughters,  to  visit  and 
associate  with  "the  fallen"?  His  esteem 
would  be  forfeited,  they  would  lose  their 
"social  position,"  the  girl's  chance  of  marry- 
ing would  be  gone. 

Men  are  not  so  stern.  They  may  visit 
the  unfortunate  women,  to  bring  them  help, 
sympathy,    re-establishment — or    for    other 


172  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

reasons;  and  it  does  not  forfeit  their  social 
position.  Why  should  it?  They  make  the 
regulation. 

Women  are  to-day,  far  more  conspicu- 
ously than  men,  the  exponents  and  victims 
of  that  mysterious  power  we  call  "Fashion." 
As  shown  in  mere  helpless  imitation  of  one 
another's  ideas,  customs,  methods,  there  is 
not  much  difference ;  in  patient  acquiescence 
with  prescribed  models  of  architecture,  fur- 
niture, literature,  or  anything  else;  there  is 
not  much  difference ;  hut  in  personal  decora- 
tion there  is  a  most  conspicuous  difference. 
Women  do  to-day  submit  to  more  grotesque 
ugliness  and  absurdity  than  men;  and  there 
are  plenty  of  good  reasons  for  it.  Confin- 
ing our  brief  study  of  fashion  to  fashion  in 
dress,  let  us  observe  why  it  is  that  women 
wear  these  fine  clothes  at  all;  and  why  they 
change  them  as  they  do. 

First,  and  very  clearly,  the  human  female 
carries  the  weight  of  sex  decoration,  solely 
because  of  her  economic  dependence  on  the 
male.  She  alone  in  nature  adds  to  the  bur- 
dens of  maternity,  which  she  was  meant  for, 
this  unnatural  burden  of  ornament,  which 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         173 

she  was  not  meant  for.  Every  other  female 
in  the  world  is  sufficiently  attractive  to  the 
male  without  trimmings.  He  carries  the 
trimmings,  sparing  no  expense  of  spread- 
ing antlers  or  trailing  plumes;  no  mon- 
strosity of  crest  and  wattles;  to  win  her 
favor. 

She  is  only  temporarily  interested  in  him. 
The  rest  of  the  time  she  is  getting  her  own, 
living,  and  caring  for  her  own  young.  But 
our  women  get  their  bread  from  their  hus- 
bands, and  every  other  social  need.  The 
woman  depends  on  the  man  for  her  position 
in  life,  as  well  as  the  necessities  of  existence. 
For  herself  and  for  her  children  she  must 
win  and  hold  him  who  is  the  source  of  all 
supplies.  Therefore  she  is  forced  to  add  to 
her  own  natural  attractions  this  "dance  of 
the  seven  veils,"  of  the  seventeen  gowns,  of 
the  seventy-seven  hats  of  gay  delirium. 

There  are  many  who  think  in  one  syllable, 
who  say,  "women  don't  dress  to  please  men 
— they  dress  to  please  themselves — and  to 
outshine  other  women."  To  these  I  would 
suggest  a  visit  to  some  summer  shore  resort 
during  the  week  and  extending  over  Satur- 


174  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

day  night.  The  women  have  all  the  week  to 
please  themselves  and  outshine  one  another; 
but  their  array  on  Saturday  seems  to 
indicate  the  approach  of  some  new  force  or 
attraction. 

If  all  this  does  not  satisfy  I  would  then 
call  their  attention  to  the  well-known  fact 
that  the  young  damsel  previous  to  marriage 
spends  far  more  time  and  ingenuity  in 
decoration  than  she  does  afterward.  This 
has  long  been  observed  and  deprecated  by 
those  who  write  Advice  to  Wives,  on  the 
ground  that  this  difference  in  displeasing  to 
the  husband — that  she  loses  her  influence 
over  him;  which  is  true.  But  since  his  own 
"society,"  knowing  his  weakness,  has  tied 
him  to  her  by  law;  why  should  she  keep  up 
what  is  after  all  an  unnatural  exertion? 

That  excellent  magazine  "Good  House- 
keeping" has  been  running  for  some  months 
a  rhymed  and  illustrated  story  of  "Miss 
Melissa  Clarissa  McRae,"  an  extremely 
dainty  and  well-dressed  stenographer,  who 
captured  and  married  a  fastidious  young 
man,  her  employer,  by  the  force  of  her  arti- 
ficial attractions — and  then  lost  his  love  after 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         175 

marriage  by  a  sudden  unaccountable  sloven- 
liness— the  same  old  story. 

If  this  is  not  enough,  let  me  instance  fur- 
ther the  attitude  toward  "Fashion"  of  that 
class  of  women  who  live  most  openly  and 
directly  upon  the  favor  of  men.  These  know 
their  business.  To  continually  attract  the 
vagrant  fancy  of  the  male,  nature's  born 
"variant,"  they  must  not  only  pile  on  arti- 
ficial charms,  but  change  them  constantly. 
They  do.  From  the  leaders  in  this  profes- 
sion comes  a  steady  stream  of  changing  fash- 
ions ;  the  more  extreme  and  bizarre,  the  more 
successful — and  because  they  are  successful 
they  are  imitated. 

If  men  did  not  like  changes  in  fashion  be 
assured  these  professional  men-pleasers 
would  not  change  them,  but  since  Nature's 
Variant  tires  of  any  face  in  favor  of  a  new 
one,  the  lady  who  would  hold  her  sway  and 
cannot  change  her  face  (except  in  color) 
must  needs  change  her  hat  and  gown. 

But  the  Arbiter,  the  Ruling  Cause,  he  who 
not  only  by  choice  demands,  but  as  a  business 
manufactures  and  supplies  this  amazing 
stream  of  fashions ;  again  like  Adam  blames 


176  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

the  woman — for  accepting  what  he  both 
demands  and  supplies. 

A  further  proof,  if  more  were  needed, 
is  shown  in  this;  that  in  exact  proportion  as 
women  grow  independent,  educated,  wise 
and  free,  do  they  become  less  submissive  to 
men-made  fashions.  Was  this  improvement 
hailed  with  sympathy  and  admiration — 
crowned  with  masculine  favor? 

The  attitude  of  men  toward  those  women 
who  have  so  far  presumed  to  "un-sex"  them- 
selves is  known  to  all.  They  like  women  to 
be  foolish,  changeable,  always  newly  attrac- 
tive; and  while  women  must  "attract"  for 
a  living — why  they  do,  that's  all. 

It  is  a  pity.  It  is  humiliating  to  any  far- 
seeing  woman  to  have  to  recognize  this  glar- 
ing proof  of  the  dependent,  degraded  posi- 
tion of  her  sex;  and  it  ought  to  be  humilia- 
ting to  men  to  see  the  results  of  their  mas- 
tery. These  crazily  decorated  little  crea- 
tures do  not  represent  Womanhood. 

When  the  artist  uses  the  woman  as  the 
type  of  every  highest  ideal;  as  Justice, 
Liberty,  Charity,  Truth — he  does  not  repre- 
sent her  trimmed.    In  any  part  of  the  world 


"SOCIETY"  AND  "FASHION"         177 

where  women  are  even  in  part  economically- 
independent  there  we  find  less  of  the  absurd- 
ities of  fashion.  Women  who  work  cannot 
be  utterly  absurd. 

But  the  idle  woman,  the  Queen  of  Society, 
who  must  please  men  within  their  prescribed 
bounds;  and  those  of  the  half- world,  who 
must  please  them  at  any  cost — these  are  the 
vehicles  of  fashion. 


178  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  X 

LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT 

IT  IS  easy  to  assume  that  men  are  natu- 
rally the  lawmakers  and  law  enforcers, 
under  the  plain  historic  fact  that  they 
have  been  such„since  the  beginning  of  the 
patriarchate. 

Back  of  law  lies  custom  and  tradition. 
Back  of  government  lies  the  correlative 
activity  of  any  organized  group.  What 
group-insects  and  group-animals  evolve  un- 
consciously and  fulfill  by  their  social 
instincts,  we  evolve  consciously  and  fulfill 
by  arbitrary  systems  called  laws  and  govern- 
ments. In  this,  as  in  all  other  fields  of  our 
action,  we  must  discriminate  between  the 
humanness  of  the  function  in  process  of 
development,  and  the  influence  of  the  male 
or  female  upon  it.    Quite  apart  from  what 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  179 

they  may  like  or  dislike  as  sexes,  from  their 
differing  tastes  and  faculties,  lies  the  much 
larger  field  of  human  progress,  in  which  they 
equally  participate. 

On  this  plane  the  evolution  of  law  and 
government  proceeds  somewhat  as  follows: 
The  early  woman-centered  group  organ- 
ized on  maternal  lines  of  common  love  and 
service.  The  early  combinations  of  men 
were  first  a  grouped  predacity — organized 
hunting;  then  a  grouped  belligerency — 
organized  warfare. 

By  special  development  some  minds  are 
able  to  perceive  the  need  of  certain  lines  of 
conduct  over  others,  and  to  make  this  clear 
to  their  fellows;  whereby,  gradually,  our 
higher  social  nature  establishes  rules  and  pre- 
cedents to  which  we  personally  agree  to  sub- 
mit. The  process  of  social  development  is 
one  of  progressive  co-ordination. 

From  independent  individual  action  for 
individual  ends,  up  to  interdependent  social 
action  for  social  ends  we  slowly  move;  the 
"devil"  in  the  play  being  the  old  Ego,  which 
has  to  be  harmonized  with  the  new  social 
spirit.     This  social  process,  like  all  others, 


180  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

having  been  in  masculine  hands,  we  may 
find  in  it  the  same  marks  of  one-sided  spe- 
cialization so  visible  in  our  previous  studies. 

The  coersive  attitude  is  essentially  male. 
In  the  ceaseless  age-old  struggle  of  sex  com- 
bat he  developed  the  desire  to  overcome, 
which  is  always  stimulated  by  resistance ;  and 
in  this  later  historic  period  of  his  supremacy, 
he  further  developed  the  habit  of  dominance 
and  mastery.  We  may  instance  the  con- 
trast between  the  conduct  of  a  man  when 
"in  love,"  as  while  courting;  in  which  period 
he  falls  into  the  natural  position  of  his  sex 
towards  the  other — namely,  that  of  a  wooer ; 
and  his  behavior  when,  with  marriage,  they 
enter  the  artificial  relation  of  the  master 
male  and  servile  female.  His  "instinct  of 
dominance"  does  not  assert  itself  during  the 
earlier  period,  which  was  a  million  times 
longer  than  the  latter;  it  only  appears  in 
the  more  modern  and  arbitrary  relation. 

Among  other  animals  monogamous  union 
is  not  accompanied  by  any  such  discordant 
and  unnatural  feature.  However  recent  as 
this  habit  is  when  considered  biologically,  it 
is  as  old  as  civilization  when  we  consider  it 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  181 

historically :  quite  old  enough  to  be  a  serious 
force.  Under  its  pressure  we  see  the  legal 
systems  and  forms  of  government  slowly 
evolving,  the  general  human  growth  always 
heavily  perverted  by  the  special  masculine 
influence.  First  we  find  the  mere  force  of 
custom  governing  us,  the  mores  of  the 
ancient  people.  Then  comes  the  gradual 
appearance  of  authority,  from  the  purely 
natural  leadership  of  the  best  hunter  or 
fighter  up  through  the  unnatural  mastery  of 
the  patriarch,  owning  and  governing  his 
wives,  children,  slaves  and  cattle,  and  mak- 
ing such  rules  and  regulations  as  pleased 
him. 

Our  laws  as  we  support  them  now  are 
slow,  wasteful,  cumbrous  systems,  which 
require  a  special  caste  to  interpret  and 
another  to  enforce ;  wherein  the  average  citi- 
zen knows  nothing  of  the  law,  and  cares  only 
to  evade  it  when  he  can,  obey  it  when  he 
must.  In  the  household,  that  stunted,  crip- 
pled rudiment  of  the  matriarchate,  where 
alone  we  can  find  what  is  left  of  the  natural 
influence  of  woman,  the  laws  and  govern- 
ment, so  far  as  she  is  responsible  for  them, 


182  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

are  fairly  simple,  and  bear  visible  relation 
to  the  common  good,  which  relation  is  clearly 
and  persistently  taught. 

In  the  larger  household  of  city  and  state 
the  educational  part  of  the  law  is  grievously 
neglected.  It  makes  no  allowance  for  ignor- 
ance. If  a  man  breaks  a  law  of  which  he 
never  heard  he  is  not  excused  therefor;  the 
penalty  rolls  on  just  the  same.  Fancy  a 
mother  making  solemn  rules  and  regulations 
for  her  family,  telling  the  children  nothing 
about  them,  and  then  punishing  them  when 
they  disobey  the  unknown  laws! 

The  use  of  force  is  natural  to  the  male; 
while  as  a  human  being  he  must  needs  legis- 
late somewhat  in  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity, as  a  male  being  he  sees  no  necessity 
for  other  enforcement  than  by  penalty.  To 
violently  oppose,  to  fight,  to  trample  to  the 
earth,  to  triumph  in  loud  bellowings  of  sav- 
age joy — these  are  the  primitive  male  in- 
stincts; and  the  perfectly  natural  social 
instincts  which  leads  to  peaceful  persuasion, 
to  education,  to  an  easy  harmony  of  action, 
are  contemptuously  ranked  as  "feminine," 
or  as  "philanthropic" — which  is  almost  as 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  183 

bad.  "Men  need  stronger  measures"  they 
say  proudly.  Yes,  but  four-fifths  of  the 
world  are  women  and  children! 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  woman,  the 
mother,  is  the  first  co-ordinator,  legislator, 
administrator  and  executive.  From  the 
guarding  and  guidance  of  her  cubs  and  kit- 
tens up  to  the  longer,  larger  management 
of  human  youth,  she  is  the  first  to  consider 
group  interests  and  co-relate  them. 

As  a  father  the  male  grows  to  share  in 
these  original  feminine  functions,  and  with 
us,  fatherhood  having  become  socialized 
while  motherhood  has  not,  he  does  the  best 
he  can,  alone,  to  do  the  world's  mother- 
work  in  his  father  way. 

In  study  of  any  long  established  human 
custom  it  is  very  difficult  to  see  it  clearly  and 
dispassionately.  Our  minds  are  heavily 
loaded  with  precedent,  with  race-custom, 
with  the  iron  weight  called  authority.  These 
heavy  forces  reach  their  most  perfect  expres- 
sion in  the  absolutely  masculine  field  of  war- 
fare," the  absolute  authority;  the  brain- 
less, voiceless  obedience;  the  relentless 
penalty.       Here    we    have   male    coercion 


184  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

at  its  height;  law  and  government  wholly 
arbitrary.  The  result  is  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, a  fine  machine  of  destruction.  But 
destruction  is  not  a  human  process — merely 
a  male  process  of  eliminating  the  unfit. 

The  female  process  is  to  select  the  fit;  her 
elimination  is  negative  and  painless. 

Greater  than  either  is  the  human  process, 
to  develop  fitness. 

Men  are  at  present  far  more  human  than 
women.  Alone  upon  their  self-seized  thrones 
they  have  carried  as  best  they  might  the  bur- 
dens of  the  state ;  and  the  history  of  law  and 
government  shows  them  as  changing  slowly 
but  irresistibly  in  the  direction  of  social 
improvement. 

The  ancient  kings  were  the  joyous 
apotheosis  of  masculinity.  Power  and 
Pride  were  theirs;  Limitless  Display; 
Boundless  Self-indulgence ;  Irresistible 
Authority.  Slaves  and  courtiers  bowed  be- 
fore them,  subjects  obeyed  them,  captive 
women  filled  their  harems.  But  the  day  of 
the  masculine  monarchy  is  passing,  and 
the  day  of  the  human  democracy  is  coming. 
In  a  democracy  law  and  government  both 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  185 

change.  Laws  are  no  longer  imposed  on 
the  people  by  one  above  them,  but  are 
evolved  from  the  people  themselves.  How 
absurd  that  the  people  should  not  be  edu- 
cated in  the  laws  they  make ;  that  the  trailing 
remnants  of  blind  submission  should  still 
becloud  their  minds  and  make  them  bow 
down  patiently  under  the  absurd  pressure 
of  outgrown  tradition ! 

Democratic  government  is  no  longer  an 
exercise  of  arbitrary  authority  from  those 
above,  but  is  an  organization  for  public  ser- 
vice of  the  people  themselves — or  will  be 
when  it  is  really  attained. 

In  this  change  government  ceases  to  be 
compulsion,  and  becomes  agreement;  law 
ceases  to  be  authority  and  becomes  co-or- 
dination. When  we  learn  the  rules  of 
whist  or  chess  we  do  not  obey  them  because 
we  fear  to  be  punished  if  we  don't,  but  be- 
cause we  want  to  play  the  game.  The  rules 
of  human  conduct  are  for  our  own  happiness 
and  service — any  child  can  see  that.  Every 
child  will  see  it  when  laws  are  simplified, 
based  on  sociology,  and  taught  in  schools. 
A  child  of  ten  should  be  considered  grossly 


186  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

uneducated  who  could  not  recite  the  main 
features  of  the  laws  of  his  country,  state, 
and  city;  and  those  laws  should  be  so  simple 
in  their  principles  that  a  child  of  ten  could 
understand  them. 

Teacher:  "What  is  a  tax?" 

Child:  "A  tax  is  the  money  we  agree  to 
pay  to  keep  up  our  common  advantages." 

Teacher:  "Why  do  we  all  pay  taxes?" 

Child:  "Because  the  country  belongs  to 
all  of  us,  and  we  must  all  pay  our  share  to 
keep  it  up." 

Teacher:  "In  what  proportion  do  we  pay 
taxes?" 

Child:  "In  proportion  to  how  much 
money  we  have."  (Sotto  voce '."Of  course.") 

Teacher:  "What  is  it  to  evade  taxes?" 

Child:  "It  is  treason."  (Sotto  voce:  "And 
a  dirty  mean  trick.") 

In  masculine  administration  of  the  laws 
we  may  follow  the  instinctive  love  of  battle 
down  through  the  custom  of  "trial  by  com- 
bat"— only  recently  outgrown,  to  our 
present  method,  where  each  contending 
party  hires  a  champion  to  represent  him, 
and  these  fight  it  out  in  a  wordy  war,  with 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  187 

tricks  and  devices  of  complex  ingenuity, 
enjoying  this  kind  of  struggle  as  they  enjoy 
all  other  kinds. 

It  is  the  old  masculine  spirit  of  govern- 
ment as  authority  which  is  so  slow  in  adopt- 
ing itself  to  the  democratic  idea  of  govern- 
ment as  service.  That  it  should  be  a  repre- 
sentative government  they  grasp,  but  repre- 
sentative of  what?  of  the  common  will,  they 
say;  the  will  of  the  majority — never  think- 
ing that  it  is  the  common  good,  the  com- 
mon welfare,  that  government  should  repre- 
sent. 

It  is  the  inextricable  masculininty  in  our 
idea  of  government  which  so  revolts  at  the 
idea  of  women  as  voters.  "To  govern:" 
that  means  to  boss,  to  control,  to  have 
authority,  and  that  only,  to  most  minds. 
They  cannot  bear  to  think  of  the  women  as 
having  control  over  even  their  own  affairs; 
to  control  is  masculine,  they  assume.  See- 
ing only  self-interest  as  a  natural  impulse, 
and  the  ruling  powers  of  the  state  as  a  sort 
of  umpire,  an  authority  to  preserve  the  rules 
of  the  game  while  men  fight  it  out  forever; 
they   see  in  a   democracy  merely  a  wider 


188  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

range  of  self  interest,  and  a  wider,  freer 
field  to  fight  in. 

The  law  dictates  the  rules,  the  govern- 
ment enforces  them,  but  the  main  business 
of  life,  hitherto,  has  been  esteemed  as  one 
long  fierce  struggle;  each  man  seeking  for 
himself.  To  deliberately  legislate  for  the 
service  of  all  the  people,  to  use  the  govern- 
ment as  the  main  engine  of  that  service,  is 
a  new  process,  wholly  human,  and  difficult 
of  development  under  an  androcentric  cul- 
ture. 

Furthermore  they  put  forth  those  naively 
androcentric  protests — women  cannot  fight, 
and  in  case  their  laws  were  resisted  by  men 
they  could  not  enforce  them — therefore 
they  should  not  vote ! 

What  they  do  not  so  plainly  say,  but  very 
strongly  think,  is  that  women  should  not 
share  the  loot  which  to  their  minds  is  so 
large  a  part  of  politics. 

Here  we  may  trace  clearly  the  social 
heredity  of  male  government. 

Fix  clearly  in  your  mind  the  first  headship 
of  man — the  leader  of  the  pack  as  it  were — 
the  Chief  Hunter.     Then  the  second  head- 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  189 

ship,  the  Chief  Fighter.  Then  the  third 
head-ship,  the  Chief  of  the  Family.  Then 
the  long  line  of  Chiefs  and  Captains,  War- 
lords and  Landlords,  Rulers  and  Kings. 

The  Hunter  hunted  for  prey,  and  got  it. 
The  Fighter  enriched  himself  with  the 
spoils  of  the  vanquished.  The  Patriarch 
lived  on  the  labor  of  women  and  slaves.  All 
down  the  ages,  from  frank  piracy  and  rob- 
bery to  the  measured  toll  of  tribute,  ran- 
som and  indemnity,  we  see  the  same  natural 
instinct  of  the  hunter  and  fighter.  In  his 
hands  the  government  is  a  thing  to  sap  and 
wreck,  to  live  on.  It  is  his  essential  impulse 
to  want  something  very  much;  to  struggle 
and  fight  for  it ;  to  take  all  he  can  get. 

Set  against  this  the  giving  love  that  comes 
with  motherhood;  the  endless  service  that 
comes  of  motherhood;  the  peaceful  admin- 
istration in  the  interest  of  the  family  that 
comes  of  motherhood.  We  prate  much  of 
the  family  as  the  unit  of  the  state.  If  it  is — 
why  not  run  the  state  on  that  basis?  Gov- 
ernment by  women,  so  far  as  it  is  influenced 
by  their  sex,  would  be  influenced  by  mother- 
hood; and  that  would  mean  care,  nurture, 


190  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

provision,  education.  We  have  to  go  far 
down  the  scale  for  any  instance  of  organ- 
ized motherhood,  but  we  do  find  it  in  the 
hymenoptera ;  in  the  overflowing  industry, 
prosperity,  peace  and  loving  service  of  the 
ant-hill  and  bee-hive.  These  are  the  most 
highly  socialized  types  of  life,  next  to  ours, 
and  they  are  feminine  types. 

We  as  human  beings  have  a  far  higher 
form  of  association,  with  further  issues  than 
mere  wealth  and  propagation  of  the  species. 
In  this  human  process  we  should  never  for- 
get that  men  are  far  more  advanced  than 
women,  at  present.  Because  of  their  human- 
ness  has  come  all  the  noble  growth  of  civili- 
zation, in  spite  of  their  maleness. 

As  human  beings  both  male  and  female 
stand  alike  useful  and  honorable,  and  should 
in  our  governments  be  alike  used  and  hon- 
ored; but  as  creatures  of  sex,  the  female  is 
fitter  than  the  male  for  administration  of 
constructive  social  interests.  The  change 
in  governmental  processes  which  marks  our 
times  is  a  change  in  principle.  Two  great 
movements  convulse  the  world  to-day,  the 
woman's   movement    and   the   labor   move- 


LAW  AND  GOVERNMENT  191 

ment.  Each  regards  the  other  as  of  less 
moment  than  itself.  Both  are  parts  of  the 
same  world-process. 

We  are  entering  upon  a  period  of  social 
consciousness.  Whereas  so  far  almost  all  of 
us  have  seen  life  only  as  individuals,  and 
have  regarded  the  growing  strength  and 
riches  of  the  social  body  as  merely  so  much 
the  more  to  fatten  on ;  now  we  are  beginning 
to  take  intelligent  interest  in  our  social 
nature,  to  understand  it  a  little,  and  to  begin 
to  feel  the  vast  increase  of  happiness  and 
power  that  comes  of  real  Human  life. 

In  this  change  of  systems  a  government 
which  consisted  only  of  prohibition  and 
commands;  of  tax  collecting  and  making 
war;  is  rapidly  giving  way  to  a  system 
which  intelligently  manages  our  common 
interests,  which  is  a  growing  and  improving 
method  of  universal  service.  Here  the 
socialist  is  perfectly  right  in  his  vision  of 
the  economic  welfare  to  be  assured  by  the 
socialization  of  industry,  though  that  is  but 
part  of  the  new  development;  and  the  in- 
dividualist who  opposes  socialism,  crying 
loudly  for  the  advantage  of  "free  competi- 


192  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

tion"  is  but  voicing  the  spirit  of  the  preda- 
ceous  male. 

So  with  the  opposers  of  the  suffrage  of 
women.  They  represent,  whether  men  or 
women,  the  male  view-point.  They  see  the 
women  only  as  a  female,  utterly  absorbed 
in  feminine  functions,  belittled  and  ignored 
as  her  long  tutelage  has  made  her;  and  they 
see  the  man  as  he  sees  himself,  the  sole  mas- 
ter of  human  affairs  for  as  long  as  we  have 
historic  record. 

This,  fortunately,  is  not  long.  We  can 
now  see  back  of  the  period  of  his  supremacy, 
and  are  beginning  to  see  beyond  it.  We  are 
well  under  way  already  in  a  higher  stage  of 
social  development,  conscious,  well-organ- 
ized, wisely  managed,  in  which  the  laws  shall 
be  simple  and  founded  on  constructive  prin- 
ciples instead  of  being  a  set  of  ring-regula- 
tions within  which  people  may  fight  as  they 
will;  and  in  which  the  government  shall  be 
recognized  in  its  full  use;  not  only  the 
sternly  dominant  father,  and  the  wisely  ser- 
viceable mother,  but  the  real  union  of  all 
people  to  sanely  and  economically  manage 
their  affairs. 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  193 


CHAPTER  XI 

CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT 

THE  human  concept  of  Sin  has  had 
its  uses,  no  doubt;  and  our  special 
invention  of  a  thing  called  Punish- 
ment has  also  served  a  purpose. 

Social  evolution  has  worked  in  many  ways 
wastefully,  and  with  unnecessary  pain,  but 
it  compares  very  favorably  with  natural 
evolution. 

As  we  grow  wiser;  as  our  social  conscious- 
ness develops,  we  are  beginning  to  improve 
on  nature  in  more  ways  than  one ;  a  part  of 
the  same  great  process,  but  of  a  more  highly 
sublimated  sort. 

Nature  shows  a  world  of  varied  and 
changing  environment.  Into  this  comes 
Life — pushing  and  spreading  in  every  direc- 
tion. A  pretty  hard  time  Life  has  of  it.  In 
the  first  place  it  is  dog  eat  dog  in  every  direc- 


194  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

tion;  the  joy  of  the  hunter  and  the  most 
un joyous  fear  of  the  hunted. 

But  quite  outside  of  this  essential  danger, 
the  environment  waits,  grim  and  unappeas- 
able, and  continuously  destroys  the  innocent 
myriads  who  fail  to  meet  the  one  requirement 
of  life — Adaptation.  So  we  must  not  be  too 
severe  in  self-condemnation  when  we  see 
how  foolish,  cruel,  crazily  wasteful,  is  our 
attitude  toward  crime  and  punishment. 

We  become  socially  conscious  largely 
through  pain,  and  as  we  begin  to  see  how 
much  of  the  pain  is  wholly  of  our  own  caus- 
ing we  are  overcome  with  shame.  But  the 
right  way  for  society  to  face  its  past  is  the 
same  as  for  the  individual;  to  see  where  it 
was  wrong,  and  stop  it — but  to  waste  no 
time  and  no  emotion  over  past  misdeeds. 

What  is  our  present  state  as  to  crime?  It 
is  pretty  bad.  Some  say  it  is  worse  than  it 
used  to  be;  others  that  it  is  better.  At  any 
rate  it  is  bad  enough,  and  a  disgrace  to  our 
civilization.  We  have  murders  by  the 
thousand  and  thieves  by  the  million,  of  all 
kinds  and  sizes;  we  have  what  we  tenderly 
call    "immorality,"    from    the    "errors    of 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  195 

youth"  to  the  sodden  grossness  of  old  age; 
married,  single,  and  mixed.  We  have  all 
the  old  kinds  of  wickedness  and  a  lot  of  new 
ones,  until  one  marvels  at  the  purity  and 
power  of  human  nature,  that  it  should  carry 
so  much  disease  and  still  grow  on  to  higher 
things. 

Also  we  have  punishment  still  with  us; 
private  and  public;  applied  like  a  rabbit's 
foot,  with  as  little  regard  to  its  efficacy.  Does 
a  child  offend?  Punish  it!  Does  a  woman 
offend?  Punish  her!  Does  a  man  offend? 
Punish  him!  Does  a  group  offend?  Punish 
them! 

"What  for?"  some  one  suddenly  asks. 

"To  make  them  stop  doing  it!" 

"But  they  have  done  it!" 

"To  make  them  not  do  it  again,  then." 

"But  they  do  it  again — and  worse." 

"To  prevent  other  people's  doing  it,  then." 

"But  it  does  not  prevent  them- — the 
crime  keeps  on.  What  good  is  your  punish- 
ment?" 

What  indeed! 

What  is  the  application  of  punishment  to 
crime?     Its   base,    its    prehistoric    base,    is 


196  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

simple  retaliation;  and  this  is  by  no  means 
wholly  male,  let  us  freely  admit.  The  instinct 
of  resistance,  of  opposition,  of  retaliation, 
lies  deeper  than  life  itself.  Its  underlying 
law  is  the  law  of  physics — action  and  reac- 
tion are  equal.  Life's  expression  of  this  law 
is  perfectly  natural,  but  not  always  profit- 
able. Hit  your  hand  on  a  stone  wall,  and 
the  stone  wall  hits  your  hand.  Very  good; 
you  learn  that  stone  walls  are  hard,  and 
govern  yourself  accordingly. 

Conscious  young  humanity  observed  and 
philosophized,  congratulating  itself  on  its 
discernment.  "A  man  hits  me — I  hit  the 
man  a  little  harder — then  he  won't  do  it 
again."  Unfortunately  he  did  do  it  again — 
a  little  harder  still.  The  effort  to  hit  harder 
carried  on  the  action  and  reaction  till  society, 
hitting  hardest  of  all,  set  up  a  system  of 
legal  punishment,  of  unlimited  severity.  It 
imprisoned,  it  mutilated,  it  tortured,  it 
killed ;  it  destroyed  whole  families,  and  razed 
contumelious  cities  to  the  ground. 

Therefore  all  crime  ceased,  of  course? 
No?  But  crime  was  mitigated,  surety !  Per- 
haps.    This  we  have  proven  at  last;  that 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  197 

crime  does  not  decrease  in  proportion  to 
the  severest  punishment.  Little  by  little  we 
have  ceased  to  raze  the  cities,  to  wipe  out 
the  families,  to  cut  off  the  ears,  to  torture; 
and  our  imprisonment  is  changing  from  slow 
death  and  insanity  to  a  form  of  attempted 
improvement. 

But  punishment  as  a  principle  remains  in 
good  standing,  and  is  still  the  main  reliance 
where  it  does  the  most  harm — in  the  rearing 
of  children.  "Spare  the  rod  and  spoil  the 
child"  remains  in  belief,  unmodified  by  the 
millions  of  children  spoiled  by  the  unspared 
rod. 

The  breeders  of  racehorses  have  learned 
better,  but  not  the  breeders  of  children.  Our 
trouble  is  simply  the  lack  of  intelligence.  We 
face  the  babyish  error  and  the  hideous  crime 
in  exactly  the  same  attitude. 

"This  person  has  done  something  offen- 
sive." 

Yes? — and  one  waits  eagerly  for  the  first 
question  of  the  rational  mind — but  does  not 
hear  it.    One  only  hears,  "Punish  him!" 

What  is  the  first  question  of  the  rational 
mind? 


198  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

"Why?" 

Human  beings  are  not  first  causes.  They 
do  not  evolve  conduct  out  of  nothing.  The 
child  does  this,  the  man  does  that,  because 
of  something;  because  of  many  things.  If 
we  do  not  like  the  way  people  behave,  and 
wish  them  to  behave  better,  we  should,  if 
we  are  rational  beings,  study  the  conditions 
that  produce  the  conduct. 

The  connection  between  our  archaic  sys- 
tems of  punishment  and  our  androcentric 
culture  is  two-fold.  The  impulse  of  resist- 
ance, while,  as  we  have  seen,  of  the  deepest 
natural  origin,  is  expressed  more  strongly 
in  the  male  than  in  the  female.  The  tendency 
to  hit  back  and  hit  harder  has  been  fostered 
in  him  by  sex-combat  till  it  has  become  of 
great  intensity.  The  habit  of  authority  too, 
as  old  as  our  history;  and  the  cumulative 
weight  of  all  religions  and  systems  of  law 
and  government,  have  furthermore  built  up 
and  intensified  the  spirit  of  retaliation  and 
vengeance. 

They  have  even  deified  this  concept,  in 
ancient  religions,  crediting  to  God  the  evil 
passions  of  men.    As  the  small  boy  recited : 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  199 

"Vengeance.  A  mean  desire  to  get  even  with 
your  enemies:  'Vengeance  is  mine  saith  the 
Lord — I  will  repay.'  " 

The  Christian  religion  teaches  better 
things;  better  than  its  expositors  and 
upholders  have  ever  understood — much  less 
practised. 

The  teaching  of  "Love  your  enemies,  do 
good  unto  them  that  hate  you,  and  serve 
them  that  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute 
you,"  has  too  often  resulted,  when  practised 
at  all,  in  a  sentimental  negation;  a  patheti- 
cally useless  attitude  of  non-resistance.  You 
might  as  well  base  a  religion  on  a  feather 
pillow ! 

The  advice  given  was  active:  direct;  con- 
crete. "Love!"  Love  is  not  non-resistance. 
"Do  good!"  Doing  good  is  not  non-resist- 
ance. "Serve!"  Service  is  not  non-resist- 
ance. 

Again  we  have  an  overwhelming  proof  of 
the  far-reaching  effects  of  our  androcentric 
culture.  Consider  it  once  more.  Here  is 
one  by  nature  combative  and  desirous,  and 
not  by  nature  intended  to  monopolize  the 
management  of  his  species.     He  assumes  to 


200  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

be  not  only  the  leader,  but  the  whole  thing — 
to  be  humanity  itself,  and  to  see  in  woman 
as  Grant  Allen  so  clearly  put  it  "Not  only 
not  the  race ;  she  is  not  even  half  the  race,  but 
a  sub-species,  told  off  for  purposes  of  repro- 
duction merely." 

Under  this  monstrous  assumption,  his 
sex-attributes  wholly  identified  with  his 
human  attributes,  and  overshadowing  them, 
he  has  imprinted  on  every  human  institu- 
tion the  tastes  and  tendencies  of  the  male. 
As  a  male  he  fought,  as  a  male  human  being 
he  fought  more,  and  deified  fighting;  and 
in  a  culture  based  on  desire  and  combat, 
loud  with  strident  self-expression,  there 
could  be  but  slow  acceptance  of  the  more 
human  methods  urged  by  Christianity.  "It 
is  a  religion  for  slaves  and  women!"  said 
the  warrior  of  old.  (Slaves  and  women 
were  largely  the  same  thing.)  "It  is  a 
religion  for  slaves  and  women"  says  the 
advocate  of  the  Superman. 

Well?  Who  did  the  work  of  all  the 
ancient  world?  Who  raised  the  food  and 
garnered  it  and  cooked  it  and  served  it? 
Who    built    the    houses,    the    temples,    the 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  201 

aqueducts,  the  city  wall?  Who  made  the 
furniture,  the  tools,  the  weapons,  the  uten- 
sils, the  ornaments — made  them  strong  and 
heautiful  and  useful?  Who  kept  the  human 
race  going,  somehow,  in  spite  of  the  constant 
hideous  waste  of  war,  and  slowly  built  up 
the  real  industrial  civilization  behind  that 
gory  show? — Why  just  the  slaves  and  the 
women. 

A  religion  which  had  attractions  for  the 
real  human  type  is  not  therefore  to  be 
utterly  despised  by  the  male. 

In  modern  history  we  may  watch  with 
increasing  ease  the  slow,  sure  progress  of 
our  growing  humanness  beneath  the  weak- 
ening shell  of  an  all-male  dominance.  And 
in  this  field  of  what  begins  in  the  nursery 
as  "discipline,"  and  ends  on  the  scaffold  as 
"punishment,"  we  can  clearly  see  that 
blessed  change. 

What  is  the  natural,  the  human  attribute? 
What  does  this  "Love,"  and  "Do  good," 
and  "Serve"  mean?  In  the  blundering  old 
church,  still  androcentric,  there  was  a  great 
to-do  to  carry  out  this  doctrine,  in  elaborate 
symbolism.     A  set  of  beggars  and  cripples, 


202  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

gathered  for  the  occasion,  was  exhibited,  and 
kings  and  cardinals  went  solemnly  through 
the  motions  of  serving  them.  As  the  Eng- 
lish schoolboy  phrased  it,  "Thomas  Becket 
washed  the  feet  of  leopards." 

Service  and  love  and  doing  good  must 
always  remain  side  issues  in  a  male  world. 
Service  and  love  and  doing  good  are  the 
spirit  of  motherhood,  and  the  essence  of 
human  life. 

Human  life  is  service,  and  is  not  combat. 
There  you  have  the  nature  of  the  change 
now  upon  us. 

What  has  the  male  mind  made  of  Chris- 
tianity? 

Desire — to  save  one's  own  soul.  Combat 
— with  the  Devil.  Self-expression — the 
whole  gorgeous  outpouring  of  pageant  and 
display,  from  the  jewels  of  the  high  priest's 
breastplate  to  the  choir  of  mutilated  men  to 
praise  a  male  Deity  no  woman  may  so  serve. 
What  kind  of  mind  can  imagine  a  kind  of 
god  who  would  like  a  eunuch  better  than  a 
woman  ? 

For  woman  they  made  at  last  a  place — 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  203 

the  usual  place — of  renunciation,  sacrifice 
and  service,  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  and  their 
kind;  and  in  that  loving  service  the  woman 
soul  has  been  content,  not  yearning  for 
cardinal's  cape  or  bishop's  mitre. 

All  this  is  changing — changing  fast. 
Everywhere  the  churches  are  broadening  out 
into  more  service,  and  the  service  broadening 
out  beyond  a  little  group  of  widows  and 
fatherless,  of  sick  and  in  prison,  to  embrace 
its  true  field — all  human  life.  In  this  new 
attitude,  how  shall  we  face  the  problems  of 
crime  ? 

Thus:  "It  is  painfully  apparent  that  a 
certain  percentage  of  our  people  do  not 
function  properly.  They  perform  anti- 
social acts.  Why?  What  is  the  matter 
with  them?" 

Then  the  heart  and  mind  of  society  is 
applied  to  the  question,  and  certain  results 
are  soon    reached;    others    slowly    worked 
toward. 

First  result.  Some  persons  are  so  morally 
diseased  that  they  must  have  hospital  treat- 
ment. The  world's  last  prison  will  be  simply 
a  hospital  for  moral  incurables.    They  must 


204  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

by  no  means  reproduce  their  kind — that  can 
be  attended  to  at  once.  Some  are  morally 
diseased,  but  may  be  cured,  and  the  best 
powers  of  society  will  be  used  to  cure  them. 
Some  are  only  morally  diseased  because  of 
the  conditions  in  which  they  are  born  and 
reared,  and  here  society  can  save  millions  at 
once. 

An  intelligent  society  will  no  more  neglect 
its  children  than  an  intelligent  mother  will 
neglect  her  children;  and  will  see  as  clearly 
that  ill-fed,  ill-dressed,  ill-taught  and  vilely 
associated  little  ones  must  grow  up  gravely 
injured. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  make  our  crop  of 
criminals,  just  as  we  make  our  idiots,  blind, 
crippled,  and  generally  defective.  Every- 
one is  a  baby  first,  and  a  baby  is  not  a  crim- 
inal, unless  we  make  it  so.  It  never  would 
be — in  right  conditions.  Sometimes  a  per- 
vert is  born,  as  sometimes  a  two-headed  calf 
is  born,  but  they  are  not  common. 

The  older,  simpler  forms  of  crime  we  may 
prevent  with  ease  and  despatch,  but  how  of 
the  new  ones? — big,  terrible,  far-reaching, 
wide-spread  crimes,  for  which  we  have  as 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  205 

yet  no  names;  and  before  which  our  old 
system  of  anti-personal  punishment  falls 
helpless?  What  of  the  crimes  of  poisoning 
a  community  with  bad  food;  of  defiling  the 
water;  of  blackening  the  air;  of  stealing 
whole  forests  ?  What  of  the  crimes  of  work- 
ing little  children;  of  building  and  renting 
tenements  that  produce  crime  and  physical 
disease  as  well?  What  of  the  crime  of  living 
on  the  wages  of  fallen  women — of  hiring 
men  to  ruin  innocent  young  girls ;  of  holding 
them  enslaved  and  selling  them  for  profit? 
( These  things  are  only  "misdemeanors"  in  a 
man-made  world!) 

And  what  about  a  crime  like  this;  to  use 
the  public  press  to  lie  to  the  public  for  pri- 
vate ends?  No  name  yet  for  this  crime; 
much  less  a  penalty. 

And  this:  To  bring  worse  than  leprosy  to 
an  innocent  clean  wife  who  loves  and  trusts 
you? 

Or  this:  To  knowingly  plant  poison  in  an 
unborn  child? 

No  names  for  these;  no  "penalties";  no 
conceivable  penalty  that  could  touch  them. 


206  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

The  whole  punishment  system  falls  to  the 
ground  before  the  huge  mass  of  evil  that 
confronts  us.  If  we  saw  a  procession  of  air 
ships  flying  over  a  city  and  dropping  bombs, 
should  we  rush  madly  off  after  each  one  cry- 
ing, "Catch  him!  Punish  him!"  or  should  we 
try  to  stop  the  procession? 

The  time  is  coming  when  the  very  word 
"crime"  will  be  disused,  except  in  poems 
and  orations;  and  "punishment,"  both  word 
and  deed,  be  obliterated.  We  are  beginning 
to  learn  a  little  of  the  nature  of  humanity; 
its  goodness,  its  beauty,  its  lovingness;  and 
to  see  that  even  its  stupidity  is  only  due  to 
our  foolish  old  methods  of  education. 

It  is  not  new  power,  new  light,  new  hope 
that  we  need,  but  to  understand  what  ails  lis. 

We  know  enough  now,  we  care  enough 
now,  we  are  strong  enough  now,  to  make  the 
whole  world  a  thousand  fold  better  in  a  gen- 
eration; but  we  are  shackled,  chained, 
blinded,  by  old  false  notions.  The  ideas  of 
the  past,  the  sentiments  of  the  past,  the  atti- 
tude and  prejudice  of  the  past,  are  in  our 
way;  and  among  them  none  more  univer- 
sally mischievous  than  this  great  body  of 


CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT  207 

ideas  and  sentiment,  prejudices  and  habits, 
which  make  up  the  offensive  network  of  the 
androcentric  culture. 


208  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  XII 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE 

I  GO  to  my  old  dictionary,  and  find; 
"Politics,  1.  The  science  of  govern- 
ment ;  that  part  of  ethics  which  has  to 
do  with  the  regulation  and  government  of  a 
nation  or  state,  the  preservation  of  its  safety, 
peace  and  prosperity ;  the  defence  of  its  exist- 
ence and  rights  against  foreign  control  or 
conquest;  the  augmentation  of  its  strength 
and  resources,  and  the  protection  of  its  citi- 
zens in  their  rights;  with  the  preservation 
and  improvement  of  their  morals.  2.  The 
management  of  political  parties;  the  ad- 
vancement of  candidates  to  office;  in  a  bad 
sense,  artful  or  dishonest  management  to 
secure  the  success  of  political  measures  or 
party  schemes,  political  trickery." 

From  present  day  experience  we  might 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  209 

add,  3.  Politics,  practical;  The  art  of 
organizing  and  handling  men  in  large  num- 
bers, manipulating  votes,  and,  in  especial, 
appropriating  public  wealth. 

We  can  easily  see  that  the  "science  of  gov- 
ernment" may  be  divided  into  "pure"  and 
"applied"  like  other  sciences,  but  that  it  is 
"a  part  of  ethics"  will  be  news  to  many 
minds. 

Yet  why  not?  Ethics  is  the  science  of  con- 
duct, and  politics  is  merely  one  field  of  con- 
duct; a  very  common  one.  Its  connection 
with  warfare  in  this  chapter  is  perfectly  legi- 
timate in  view  of  the  history  of  politics  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  imperative  modern 
issues  which  are  to-day  opposed  to  this  estab- 
lished combination. 

There  are  many  to-day  who  hold  that 
politics  need  not  be  at  all  connected  with 
warfare;  and  others  who  hold  that  politics 
is  warfare  from  start  to  finish. 

In  order  to  dissociate  the  two  ideas  com- 
pletely, let  us  give  a  paraphrase  of  the 
above  definition,  applying  it  to  domestic 
management — that  part  of  ethics  which  has 
to  do  with  the  regulation  and  government  of 


210  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

a  family;  the  preservation  of  its  safety, 
peace  and  prosperity;  the  defense  of  its 
existence  and  rights  against  any  stranger's 
interference  or  control ;  the  augmentation  of 
its  strength  and  resources,  and  the  protec- 
tion of  its  members  in  their  rights;  with  the 
preservation  and  improvement  of  their 
morals. 

All  this  is  simple  enough,  and  in  no  way 
masculine;  neither  is  it  feminine,  save  in 
this;  that  the  tendency  to  care  for,  defend 
and  manage  a  group,  is  in  its  origin 
maternal. 

In  every  human  sense,  however,  politics 
has  left  its  maternal  base  far  in  the  back- 
ground; and  as  a  field  of  study  and  of  action 
is  as  well  adapted  to  men  as  to  women. 
There  is  no  reason  whatever  why  men  should 
not  develop  great  ability  in  this  department 
of  ethics,  and  gradually  learn  how  to  pre- 
serve the  safety,  peace  and  prosperity  of 
their  nation;  together  with  those  other  ser- 
vices as  to  resources,  protection  of  citizens, 
and  improvement  of  morals. 

Men,  as  human  beings,  are  capable  of  the 
noblest  devotion  and  efficiency  in  these  mat- 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  211 

ters,  and  have  often  shown  them;  but  their 
devotion  and  efficiency  have  been  marred  in 
this,  as  in  so  many  other  fields,  by  the  con- 
stant obtrusion  of  an  ultra-masculine  tend- 
ency. 

In  warfare,  per  se,  we  find  maleness  in  its 
absurdest  extremes.  Here  is  to  be  studied 
the  whole  gamut  of  basic  masculinity,  from 
the  initial  instinct  of  combat,  through  every 
form  of  glorious  ostentation,  with  the  loud- 
est possible  accompaniment  of  noise. 

Primitive  warfare  had  for  its  climax  the 
possession  of  the  primitive  prize,  the  female. 
Without  dogmatising  on  so  remote  a  period, 
it  may  be  suggested  as  a  fair  hypothesis  that 
this  was  the  very  origin  of  our  organized 
raids.  We  certainly  find  war  before  there 
was  property  in  land,  or  any  other  property 
to  tempt  aggressors.  Women,  however, 
there  were  always,  and  when  a  specially 
androcentric  tribe  had  reduced  its  supply  of 
women  by  cruel  treatment,  or  they  were  not 
born  in  sufficient  numbers,  owing  to  hard 
conditions,  men  must  needs  go  farther  afield 
after  other  women.  Then,  since  the  men  of 
the  other  tribes  naturally  objected  to  losing 


212  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

their  main  labor  supply  and  comfort,  there 
was  war. 

Thus  based  on  the  sex  impulse,  it  gave 
full  range  to  the  combative  instinct,  and 
further  to  that  thirst  for  vocal  exultation  so 
exquisitely  male.  The  proud  bellowings  of 
the  conquering  stag,  as  he  trampled  on  his 
prostrate  rival,  found  higher  expression  in 
the  "triumphs"  of  old  days,  when  the  con- 
quering warrior  returned  to  his  home,  with 
victims  chained  to  his  chariot  wheels,  and 
trumpets  braying. 

When  property  became  an  appreciable 
factor  in  life,  warfare  took  on  a  new  signifi- 
cance. What  was  at  first  mere  destruction, 
in  the  effort  to  defend  or  obtain  some  hunt- 
ing ground  or  pasture ;  and,  always,  to  secure 
the  female;  now  coalesced  with  the  acquisi- 
tive instinct,  and  the  long  black  ages  of 
predatory  warfare  closed  in  upon  the  world. 

Where  the  earliest  form  exterminated,  the 
later  enslaved,  and  took  tribute ;  and  for  cen- 
tury upon  century  the  "gentleman  adven- 
turer," i.  e.,  the  primitive  male,  greatly  pre- 
ferred to  acquire  wealth  by  the  simple  old 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  213 

process  of  taking  it,  to  any  form  of  produc- 
tive industry. 

We  have  been  much  misled  as  to  warfare 
by  our  androcentric  literature.  With  a  his- 
tory which  recorded  nothing  else;  a  litera- 
ture which  praised  and  an  art  which  exalted 
it;  a  religion  which  called  its  central  power 
"the  God  of  Battles"— never  the  God  of 
Workshops,  mind  you! — with  a  whole  com- 
plex social  structure  man-prejudiced  from 
center  to  circumference,  and  giving  highest 
praise  and  honor  to  the  Soldier;  it  is  still 
hard  for  us  to  see  what  warfare  really  is  in 
human  life. 

Some  day  we  shall  have  new  histories  writ- 
ten, histories  of  world  progress,  showing  the 
slow  uprising,  the  development,  the  interser- 
vice  of  the  nations;  showing  the  faint  beau- 
tiful dawn  of  the  larger  spirit  of  world-con- 
sciousness, and  all  its  benefiting  growth. 

We  shall  see  people  softening,  learning, 
rising;  see  life  lengthen  with  the  possession 
of  herds,  and  widen  in  rich  prosperity  with 
agriculture.  Then  industry,  blossoming, 
fruiting,  spreading  wide;  art,  giving  light 
and  joy;  the  intellect  developing  with  com- 


214  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

panionship  and  human  intercourse ;  the  whole 
spreading  tree  of  social  progress,  the  trunk 
of  which  is  specialized  industry,  and  the 
branches  of  which  comprise  every  least  and 
greatest  line  of  human  activity  and  enjoy- 
ment. This  growing  tree,  springing  up 
wherever  conditions  of  peace  and  prosperity 
gave  it  a  chance,  we  shall  see  continually 
hewed  down  to  the  very  root  by  war. 

To  the  later  historian  will  appear  through- 
out the  ages,  like  some  Hideous  Fate,  some 
Curse,  some  predetermined  check,  to  drag 
down  all  our  hope  and  joy  and  set  life  for- 
ever at  its  first  steps  over  again,  this  Red 
Plague  of  War. 

The  instinct  of  combat,  between  males, 
worked  advantageously  so  long  as  it  did  not 
injure  the  female  or  the  young.  It  is  a  per- 
fectly natural  instinct,  and  therefore  per- 
fectly right,  in  its  place;  but  its  place  is  in  a 
pre-patriarchal  era.  So  long  as  the  animal 
mother  was  free  and  competent  to  care  for 
herself  and  her  young;  then  it  was  an  advan- 
tage to  have  "the  best  man  win;"  that  is  the 
best  stag  or  lion ;  and  to  have  the  vanquished 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  215 

die,  or  live  in  sulky  celibacy,  was  no  disad- 
vantage to  any  one  but  himself. 

Humanity  is  on  a  stage  above  this  plan. 
The  best  man  in  the  social  structure  is  not 
always  the  huskiest.  When  a  fresh  horde 
of  ultra-male  savages  swarmed  down  upon 
a  prosperous  young  civilization,  killed  off 
the  more  civilized  males  and  appropriated 
the  more  civilized  females;  they  did,  no 
doubt,  bring  in  a  fresh  physical  impetus  to 
the  race;  but  they  destroyed  the  civilization. 

The  reproduction  of  perfectly  good  sav- 
ages is  not  the  main  business  of  human- 
ity. Its  business  is  to  grow,  socially;  to  de- 
velop, to  improve;  and  warfare,  at  its  best, 
retards  human  progress;  at  its  worst,  ob- 
literates it. 

Combat  is  not  a  social  process  at  all;  it  is 
a  physical  process,  a  subsidiary  sex  process, 
purely  masculine,  intended  to  improve  the 
species  by  the  elimination  of  the  unfit. 
Amusingly  enough,  or  absurdly  enough; 
when  applied  to  society,  it  eliminates  the  fit, 
and  leaves  the  unfit  to  perpetuate  the  race! 

We  require,  to  do  our  organized  fighting, 
a  picked  lot  of  vigorous  young  males,  the 


216  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

fittest  we  can  find.  The  too  old  or  too 
young;  the  sick,  crippled,  defective;  are  all 
left  behind,  to  marry  and  be  fathers;  while 
the  pick  of  the  country,  physically,  is  sent 
off  to  oppose  the  pick  of  another  country, 
and  kill— kill— kill! 

Observe  the  result  on  the  population !  In 
the  first  place  the  balance  is  broken — there 
are  not  enough  men  to  go  around,  at  home; 
many  women  are  left  unmated.  In  primi- 
tive warfare,  where  women  were  promptly 
enslaved,  or,  at  the  best,  polygamously  mar- 
ried, this  did  not  greatly  matter — to  the 
population;  but  as  civilization  advances  and 
monogamy  obtains,  whatever  eugenic  bene- 
fits may  once  have  sprung  from  warfare  are 
completely  lost,  and  all  its  injuries  remain. 

In  what  we  innocently  call  "civilized  war- 
fare" (we  might  as  well  speak  of  "civilized 
cannibalism!") ,  this  steady  elimination  of  the 
fit  leaves  an  ever  lowering  standard  of  par- 
entage at  home.  It  makes  a  widening  mar- 
gin of  what  we  call  "surplus  women,"  mean- 
ing more  than  enough  to  be  monogamously 
married;  and  these  women,  not  being  eco- 
nomically independent,  drag  steadily  upon 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  217 

the  remaining  men,  postponing  marriage, 
and  increasing  its  burdens. 

The  birth  rate  is  lowered  in  quantity  by 
the  lack  of  husbands,  and  lowered  in  quality 
both  by  the  destruction  of  superior  stock, 
and  by  the  wide  dissemination  of  those  dis- 
eases which  invariably  accompany  the  wife- 
lessness  of  the  segregated  males  who  are  told 
off  to  perform  our  military  functions. 

The  external  horrors  and  wastes  of  war- 
fare we  are  all  familiar  with:  A.  It  arrests 
industry  and  all  progress.  B.  It  destroys  the 
fruits  of  industry  and  progress.  C.  It  weak- 
ens, hurts  and  kills  the  combatants.  D.  It 
lowers  the  standard  of  the  non-combatants. 
Even  the  conquering  nation  is  heavily  in- 
jured; the  conquered  sometimes  extermi- 
nated, or  at  least  absorbed  by  the  victor. 

This  masculine  selective  process,  when  ap- 
plied to  nations,  does  not  produce  the  same 
result  as  when  applied  to  single  opposing 
animals.  When  little  Greece  was  overcome 
it  did  not  prove  that  the  victors  were  su- 
perior, nor  promote  human  interests  in  any 
way;  it  injured  them. 

The    "stern    arbitrament    of    war"    may 


218  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

prove  which  of  two  peoples  is  the  better 
fighter,  but  it  does  not  prove  it  therefore  the 
fittest  to  survive. 

Beyond  all  these  more  or  less  obvious 
evils,  comes  a  further  result,  not  enough 
recognized;  the  psychic  effects  of  military 
standard  of  thought  and  feeling. 

Remember  that  an  androcentric  culture 
has  always  exempted  its  own  essential  ac- 
tivities from  the  restraints  of  ethics, — "All's 
fair  in  love  and  war!"  Deceit,  trickery,  ly- 
ing, every  kind  of  skulking  underhand  effort 
to  get  information;  ceaseless  endeavor  to 
outwit  and  overcome  "the  enemy";  these, 
with  cruelty  and  destruction  are  character- 
istic of  the  military  process;  as  well  as  the 
much  prized  virtues  of  courage,  endurance 
and  loyalty,  personal  and  public. 

Also  classed  as  a  virtue,  and  unquestion- 
ably such  from  the  military  point  of  view, 
is  that  prime  factor  in  making  and  keeping 
an  army,  obedience. 

See  how  the  effect  of  this  artificial  main- 
tenance of  early  mental  attitudes  acts  on 
later  development.  True  human  progress 
requires  elements  quite  other  than  these.    If 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  219 

successful  warfare  made  one  nation  unques- 
tioned master  of  the  earth,  its  social  progress 
would  not  be  promoted  by  that  event.  The 
rude  hordes  of  Genghis  Khan  swarmed  over 
Asia  and  into  Europe,  but  remained  rude 
hordes;  conquest  is  not  civilization,  nor  any 
part  of  it. 

When  the  northern  tribes-men  over- 
whelmed the  Roman  culture  they  paralyzed 
progress  for  a  thousand  years  or  so ;  set  back 
the  clock  by  that  much.  So  long  as  all 
Europe  was  at  war,  so  long  the  arts  and 
sciences  sat  still,  or  struggled  in  hid  corners 
to  keep  their  light  alive. 

When  warfare  itself  ceases,  the  physical, 
social  and  psychic  results  do  not  cease.  Our 
whole  culture  is  still  hag-ridden  by  military 
ideals. 

Peace  congresses  have  begun  to  meet, 
peace  societies  write  and  talk,  but  the  monu- 
ments to  soldiers  and  sailors  (naval  sailors 
of  course),  still  go  up,  and  the  tin  soldier 
remains  a  popular  toy.  We  do  not  see 
boxes  of  tin  carpenters  by  any  chance;  tin 
farmers,  weavers,  shoemakers;  we  do  not 
write  our  "boys'  books"  about  the  real  bene- 


220  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

factors  and  servers  of  society;  the  adven- 
turer and  destroyer  remains  the  idol  of  an 
androcentric  culture. 

In  politics  the  military  ideal,  the  military 
processes,  are  so  predominant  as  to  almost 
monopolize  "that  part  of  ethics." 

The  science  of  government,  the  plain 
wholesome  business  of  managing  a  com- 
munity for  its  own  good ;  doing  its  work,  ad- 
vancing its  prosperity,  improving  its  morals 
— this  is  frankly  understood  and  accepted 
as  A  Fight  from  start  to  finish.  Marshall 
your  forces  and  try  to  get  in,  this  is  the 
political  campaign.  When  you  are  in,  fight 
to  stay  in,  and  to  keep  the  other  fellow  out. 
Fight  for  your  own  hand,  like  an  animal; 
fight  for  your  master  like  any  hired  bravo; 
fight  always  for  some  desired  "victory" — 
and  "to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 

This  is  not  by  any  means  the  true  nature 
of  politics.  It  is  not  even  a  fair  picture  of 
politics  to-day;  in  which  man,  the  human 
being,  is  doing  noble  work  for  humanity; 
but  it  is  the  effect  of  man,  the  male,  on 
politics. 

Life,  to  the  "male  mind"  (we  have  heard 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  221 

enough  of  the  "female  mind"  to  use  the 
analogue!)  is  a  fight,  and  his  ancient  mili- 
tary institutions  and  processes  keep  up  the 
delusion. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  life  is  growth. 
Growth  comes  naturally,  by  multiplication 
of  cells,  and  requires  three  factors  to  pro- 
mote it;  nourishment,  use,  rest.  Combat  is 
a  minor  incident  of  life;  belonging  to  low 
levels,  and  not  of  a  developing  influence 
socially. 

The  science  of  politics,  in  a  civilized  com- 
munity, should  have  by  this  time  a  fine  ac- 
cumulation of  simplified  knowledge  for  dif- 
fusion in  public  schools;  a  store  of  practical 
experience  in  how  to  promote  social  ad- 
vancement most  rapidly,  a  progressive  econ- 
omy and  ease  of  administration,  a  simplicity 
in  theory  and  visible  benefit  in  practice,  such 
as  should  make  every  child  an  eager  and 
serviceable  citizen. 

What  do  we  find,  here  in  America,  in  the 
field  of  "poUtics?" 

We  find  first  a  party  system  which  is  the 
technical  arrangement  to  carry  on  a  fight. 
It  is  perfectly  conceivable  that  a  flourishing 


222  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

democratic  government  be  carried  on  with- 
out any  parties  at  all;  public  functionaries 
being  elected  on  their  merits,  and  each  pro- 
posed measure  judged  on  its  merits;  though 
this  sounds  impossible  to  the  androcentric 
mind. 

"There  has  never  been  a  democracy  with- 
out factions  and  parties!"  is  protested. 

There  has  never  been  a  democracy,  so  far, 
— only  an  androcracy. 

A  group  composed  of  males  alone,  na- 
turally divides,  opposes,  fights;  even  a  male 
church,  under  the  most  rigid  rule,  has  its 
secret  undercurrents  of  antagonism. 

"It  is  the  human  heart!''  is  again  pro- 
tested. No,  not  essentially  the  human  heart, 
but  the  male  heart.  This  is  so  well  recog- 
nized by  men  in  general,  that,  to  their  minds, 
in  this  mingled  field  of  politics  and  warfare, 
women  have  no  place. 

In  "civilized  warfare"  they  are,  it  is  true, 
allowed  to  trail  along  and  practice  their 
feminine  function  of  nursing;  but  this  is 
no  part  of  war  proper,  it  is  rather  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end  of  war.  Sometime  it  will 
strike  our  "funny  spot,"  these  strenuous  ef- 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  223 

forts  to  hurt  and  destroy,  and  these  accom- 
panying efforts  to  heal  and  save. 

But  in  our  politics  there  is  not  even  pro- 
vision for  a  nursing  corps;  women  are  abso- 
lutely excluded. 

"They  cannot  play  the  game!"  cries  the 
practical  politician.  There  is  loud  talk  of 
the  defilement,  the  "dirty  pool"  and  its  re- 
sultant darkening  of  fair  reputations,  the 
total  unfitness  of  lovely  woman  to  take  part 
in  "the  rough  and  tumble  of  politics." 

In  other  words  men  have  made  a  human 
institution  into  an  ultra-masculine  perform- 
ance; and,  quite  rightly,  feel  that  women 
could  not  take  part  in  politics  as  men  do. 
That  it  is  not  necessary  to  fulfill  this  human 
custom  in  so  masculine  a  way  does  not  occur 
to  them.  Few  men  can  overlook  the  limi- 
tations of  their  sex  and  see  the  truth;  that 
this  business  of  taking  care  of  our  common 
affairs  is  not  only  equally  open  to  women 
and  men,  but  that  women  are  distinctly 
needed  in  it. 

Anyone  will  admit  that  a  government 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  women  would  be 
helped  by  the   assistance   of  men;  that  a 


224  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

gynaecocracy  must,  of  its  own  nature,  be 
one-sided.  Yet  it  is  hard  to  win  reluctant 
admission  of  the  opposite  fact;  that  an  an- 
drocracy must  of  its  own  nature  be  one- 
sided also,  and  would  be  greatly  improved 
by  the  participation  of  the  other  sex. 

The  inextricable  confusion  of  politics  and 
warfare  is  part  of  the  stumbling  block  in 
the  minds  of  men.  As  they  see  it,  a  nation 
is  primarily  a  fighting  organization;  and  its 
principal  business  is  offensive  and  defensive 
warfare ;  therefore  the  ultimatum  with  which 
they  oppose  the  demand  for  political  equal- 
ity— "women  cannot  fight,  therefore  they 
cannot  vote." 

Fighting,  when  all  is  said,  is  to  them  the 
real  business  of  life;  not  to  be  able  to  fight 
is  to  be  quite  out  of  the  running;  and  ability 
to  solve  our  growing  mass  of  public 
problems;  questions  of  health,  of  education, 
of  morals,  of  economics;  weighs  naught 
against  the  ability  to  kill. 

This  naive  assumption  of  supreme  value 
in  a  process  never  of  the  first  importance; 
and  increasingly  injurious  as  society  pro- 
gresses, would  be  laughable  if  it  were  not 


POLITICS  AND  WARFARE  225 

for  its  evil  effects.  It  acts  and  reacts  upon 
us  to  our  hurt.  Positively,  we  see  the  ill 
effects  already  touched  on ;  the  evils  not  only 
of  active  war;  but  of  the  spirit  and  methods 
of  war;  idealized,  inculcated  and  practiced 
in  other  social  processes.  It  tends  to  make 
each  man-managed  nation  an  actual  or  po- 
tential fighting  organization,  and  to  give  us, 
instead  of  civilized  peace,  that  "balance  of 
power"  which  is  like  the  counted  time  in  the 
prize  ring — only  a  rest  between  combats. 

It  leaves  the  weaker  nations  to  be  con- 
quered" and  "annexed"  just  as  they  used 
to  be;  with  "preferential  tariffs"  instead  of 
tribute.  It  forces  upon  each  the  burden  of 
armament;  upon  many  the  dreaded  con- 
scription ;  and  continually  lowers  the  world's 
resources  in  money  and  in  life. 

Similarly  in  politics,  it  adds  to  the  legiti- 
mate expenses  of  governing  the  illegitimate 
expenses  of  fighting ;  and  must  needs  have  a 
"spoils  system"  by  which  to  pay  its  mer- 
cenaries. 

In  carrying  out  the  public  policies  the 
wheels  of  state  are  continually  clogged  by 
the  "opposition";  always  an  opposition  on 


226  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

one  side  or  the  other ;  and  this  slow  wiggling 
uneven  progress,  through  shorn  victories 
and  haggling  concessions,  is  held  to  be  the 
proper  and  only  political  method. 

"Women  do  not  understand  politics,"  we 
are  told;  "Women  do  not  care  for  politics;" 
"Woman  are  unfitted  for  politics." 

It  is  frankly  inconceivable,  from  the  an- 
drocentric view-point,  that  nations  can  live 
in  peace  together,  and  be  friendly  and  ser- 
viceable as  persons  are.  It  is  inconceivable 
also,  that,  in  the  management  of  a  nation, 
honesty,  efficiency,  wisdom,  experience  and 
love  could  work  out  good  results  without 
any  element  of  combat. 

The  "ultimate  resort"  is  still  to  arms. 
"The  will  of  the  majority"  is  only  respected 
on  account  of  the  guns  of  the  majority.  We 
have  but  a  partial  civilization,  heavily  modi- 
fied to  sex — the  male  sex. 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        227 


CHAPTER  XIII 


INDUSTRY    AND    ECONOMICS 

THE  forest  of  Truth,  on  the  subject 
of  industry  and  economics,  is  dif- 
ficult to  see  on  account  of  the  trees. 
We  have  so  many  Facts  on  this  subject; 
so  many  Opinions;  so  many  Traditions  and 
Habits;  and  the  pressure  of  Immediate  Con- 
ditions is  so  intense  upon  us  all;  that  it  is 
not  easy  to  form  a  clear  space  in  one's  mind 
and  consider  the  field  fairly. 

Possibly  the  present  treatment  of  the  sub- 
ject will  appeal  most  to  the  minds  of  those 
who  know  least  about  it;  such  as  the  Aver- 
age Woman.  To  her,  industry  is  a  day- 
long and  lifelong  duty,  as  well  as  a  natural 
impulse;  and  economics  means  going  with- 
out things.    To  such  untrained  but  also  un- 


228  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

prejudiced  minds  it  should  be  easy  to  show 
the  main  facts  on  these  lines. 

Let  us  dispose  of  Economics  first,  as  hav- 
ing a  solemn  scientific  appearance. 

Physical  Economics  treats  of  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  body ;  the  whole  machinery  and 
how  it  works;  all  organs,  members,  func- 
tions; each  last  and  littlest  capillary  and 
leucocyte,  are  parts  of  that  "economy." 

Nature's  "economy"  is  not  in  the  least 
"economical."  The  waste  of  life,  the  waste 
of  material,  the  waste  of  time  and  effort, 
are  prodigious,  yet  she  achieves  her  end  as 
we  see. 

Domestic  Economics  covers  the  whole 
care  and  government  of  the  household;  the 
maintenance  of  peace,  health,  order,  and 
morality;  the  care  and  nourishment  of  chil- 
dren as  far  as  done  at  home ;  the  entire  man- 
agement of  the  home,  as  well  as  the  spending 
and  saving  of  money;  are  included  in  it. 
Saving  is  the  least  and  poorest  part  of  it; 
especially  as  in  mere  abstinence  from  needed 
things;  most  especially  when  this  abstinence 
is  mainly  "Mother's."  How  best  to  spend! 
time,  strength,  love,  care,  labor,  knowledge, 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        229 

and  money — this  should  be  the  main  study 
in  Domestic  Economics. 

Social,  or,  as  they  are  used  to  call  it, 
Political  Economics,  covers  a  larger,  but  not 
essentially  different  field.  A  family  consists 
of  people,  and  the  Mother  is  their  natural 
manager.  Society  consists  of  people — the 
same  people — only  more  of  them.  All  the 
people  who  are  members  of  Society  are  also 
members  of  families — except  some  incu- 
bated orphans  maybe.  Social  Economics 
covers  the  whole  care  and  management  of 
the  people,  the  maintenance  of  peace  and 
health  and  order  and  morality;  the  care  of 
children,  as  far  as  done  out  of  the  home;  as 
well  as  the  spending  and  saving  of  the  public 
money — all  these  are  included  in  it. 

This  great  business  of  Social  Economics 
is  at  present  little  understood  and  most 
poorly  managed,  for  this  reason;  we  ap- 
proach it  from  an  individual  point  of  view; 
seeking  not  so  much  to  do  our  share  in  the 
common  service,  as  to  get  our  personal  profit 
from  the  common  wealth.  Where  the  whole 
family  labors  together  to  harvest  fruit  and 
store  it  for  the  winter,  we  have  legitimate 


230  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

Domestic  Economics:  but  where  one  mem- 
ber takes  and  hides  a  lot  for  himself,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  others,  we  have  no  Domestic 
Economics  at  all — merely  individual  selfish- 
ness. 

In  Social  Economics  we  have  a  large,  but 
simple  problem.  Here  is  the  earth,  our 
farm.  Here  are  the  people,  who  own  the 
earth.  How  can  the  most  advantage  to  the 
most  people  be  obtained  from  the  earth  with 
the  least  labor?  That  is  the  problem  of 
Social  Economics. 

Looking  at  the  world  as  if  you  held  it 
in  your  hands  to  study  and  discuss,  what  do 
we  find  at  present? 

We  find  people  living  too  thickly  for 
health  and  comfort  in  some  places,  and  too 
thinly  in  others;  we  find  most  people  work- 
ing too  hard  and  too  long  at  honest  labor; 
some  people  working  with  damaging  in- 
tensity at  dishonest  labor;  and  a  few 
wretched  paupers  among  the  rich  and  poor, 
degenerate  idlers  who  do  not  work  at  all, 
the  scum  and  the  dregs  of  Society, 
work  far  too  hard  for  what  we  do  get. 
the  comfort  out  of  life  we  easily  could;  and 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        231 

work  far  too  hard  for  what  we  do  get. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  peace,  no  settled  se- 
curity. No  man  is  sure  of  his  living,  no  mat- 
ter how  hard  he  works,  a  thousand  things 
may  occur  to  deprive  him  of  his  job,  or  his 
income.  In  our  time  there  is  great  excite- 
ment along  this  line  of  study ;  and  more  than 
one  proposition  is  advanced  whereby  we 
may  improve  most,  notably  instanced  in  the 
world-covering  advance  of  Socialism. 

In  our  present  study  the  principal  fact 
to  be  exhibited  is  the  influence  of  a  male  cul- 
ture upon  Social  Economics  and  Industry. 

Industry,  as  a  department  of  Social  Eco- 
nomics, is  little  understood.  Heretofore  we 
have  viewed  this  field  from  several  wholly 
erroneous  positions.  From  the  Hebrew 
(and  wholly  androcentric)  religious  teach- 
ing, we  have  regarded  labor  as  a  curse. 

Nothing  could  be  more  absurdly  false. 
Labor  is  not  merely  a  means  of  supporting 
human  life — it  is  human  life.  Imagine  a 
race  of  beings  living  without  labor!  They 
must  be  the  rudest  savages. 

Human  work  consists  in  specialized  in- 
dustry and  the  exchange  of  its  products; 


232  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

and  without  it  is  no  civilization.  As  indus- 
try develops,  civilization  develops;  peace  ex- 
pands ;  wealth  increases ;  science  and  art  help 
on  the  splendid  total.  Productive  industry, 
and  its  concomitant  of  distributive  industry 
cover  the  major  field  of  human  life. 

If  our  industry  was  normal,  what  should 
we  see? 

A  world  full  of  healthy,  happy  people; 
each  busily  engaged  in  what  he  or  she  most 
enjoyed  doing.  Normal  Specialization,  like 
all  our  voluntary  processes,  is  accompanied 
by  keen  pleasure;  and  any  check  or  inter- 
ruption to  it  gives  pain  and  injury.  Who- 
soever works  at  what  he  loves  is  well  and 
happy.  Whosoever  works  at  what  he  does 
not  love  is  ill  and  miserable.  It  is  very  bad 
economics  to  force  unwilling  industry.  That 
is  the  weakness  of  slave  labor;  and  of  wage 
labor  also  where  there  is  not  full  industrial 
education  and  freedom  of  choice. 

Under  normal  conditions  we  should  see 
well  developed,  well  trained  specialists  hap- 
pily engaged  in  the  work  they  most  enjoyed; 
for  reasonable  hours  (any  work,  or  play 
either,  becomes  injurious  if  done  too  long)  ; 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        233 

and  as  a  consequence  the  whole  output  of  the 
world  would  be  vastly  improved,  not  only  in 
quantity  but  in  quality. 

Plain  are  the  melancholy  facts  of  what  we 
do  see.  Following  that  pitiful  conception 
of  labor  as  a  curse,  comes  the  very  old  and 
androcentric  habit  of  despising  it  as  belong- 
ing to  women,  and  then  to  slaves. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  industry  is  in  its  ori- 
gin feminine;  that  is,  maternal.  It  is  the 
overflowing  fountain  of  mother-love  and 
mother-power  which  first  prompts  the  hu- 
man race  to  labor;  and  for  long  ages  men 
performed  no  productive  industry  at  all ;  be- 
ing merely  hunters  and  fighters. 

It  is  this  lack  of  natural  instinct  for  labor 
in  the  male  of  our  species,  together  with  the 
ideas  and  opinions  based  on  that  lack,  and 
voiced  by  him  in  his  many  writings,  religious 
and  other,  which  have  given  to  the  world  its 
false  estimate  of  this  great  function,  human 
work.  That  which  is  our  very  life,  our 
greatest  joy,  our  road  to  all  advancement, 
we  have  scorned  and  oppressed;  so  that 
"working   people,"  the  "working  classes," 


234  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

"having  to  work,"  etc.,  are  to  this  day 
spoken  of  with  contempt.  Perhaps  drones 
speak  so  among  themselves  of  the  "working 
bees!" 

Normally,  widening  out  from  the  moth- 
er's careful  and  generous  service  in  the  fam- 
ily, to  careful,  generous  service  in  the  world, 
we  should  find  labor  freely  given,  with  love 
and  pride. 

Abnormally,  crushed  under  the  burden  of 
androcentric  scorn  and  prejudice,  we  have 
labor  grudgingly  produced  under  pressure 
of  necessity ;  labor  of  slaves  under  fear  of  the 
whip,  or  of  wage-slaves,  one  step  higher,  un- 
der fear  of  want.  Long  ages  wherein  hunt- 
ing and  righting  were  the  only  manly  occu- 
pations, have  left  their  heavy  impress.  The 
predacious  instinct  and  the  combative  in- 
stinct weigh  down  and  disfigure  our  eco- 
nomic development.  What  Veblen  calls 
"the  instinct  of  workmanship"  grows  on, 
slowly  and  irresistibly;  but  the  malign  fea- 
tures of  our  industrial  life  are  distinctly  an- 
drocentric: the  desire  to  get,  of  the  hunter; 
interfering  with  the  desire  to  give,  of  the 
mother ;  the  desire  to  overcome  an  antagonist 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        235 

— originally  masculine,  interfering  with  the 
desire  to  serve  and  benefit — originally  femi- 
nine. 

Let  the  reader  keep  in  mind  that  as  hu- 
man beings,  men  are  able  to  over-live  their 
masculine  natures  and  do  noble  service  to 
the  world;  also  that  as  human  beings  they 
are  to-day  far  more  highly  developed  than 
women,  and  doing  far  more  for  the  world. 
The  point  here  brought  out  is  that  as  males 
their  unchecked  supremacy  has  resulted  in 
an  abnormal  predominance  of  masculine  im- 
pulses in  our  human  processes ;  and  that  this 
predominance  has  been  largely  injurious. 

As  it  happens,  the  distinctly  feminine  or 
maternal  impulses  are  far  more  nearly  in 
line  with  human  progress  than  are  those  of 
the  male;  which  makes  her  exclusion  from 
human  functions  the  more  mischievous. 

Our  current  teachings  in  the  infant  sci- 
ence of  Political  Economy  are  naively  mas- 
culine. They  assume  as  unquestionable  that 
"the  economic  man"  will  never  do  anything 
unless  he  has  to;  will  only  do  it  to  escape 
pain  or  attain  pleasure ;  and  will,  inevitably, 
take  all  he  can  get,  and  do  all  he  can  to  out- 


236  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

wit,  overcome,  and  if  necessary  destroy  his 
antagonist. 

Always  the  antagonist;  to  the  male  mind 
an  antagonist  is  essential  to  progress,  to  all 
achievement.  He  has  planted  that  root- 
thought  in  all  the  human  world;  from  that 
old  hideous  idea  of  Satan,  "The  Adversary," 
down  to  the  competitor  in  business,  or  the 
boy  at  the  head  of  the  class,  to  be  superseded 
by  another. 

Therefore,  even  in  science,  "the  struggle 
for  existence"  is  the  dominant  law — to  the 
male  mind,  with  the  "survival  of  the  fittest" 
and  "the  elimination  of  the  unfit." 

Therefore  in  industry  and  economics  we 
find  always  and  everywhere  the  antagonist; 
the  necessity  for  somebody  or  something  to 
be  overcome — else  why  make  an  effort?  If 
you  have  not  the  incentive  of  reward,  or  the 
incentive  of  combat,  why  work?  "Competi- 
tion is  the  life  of  trade." 

Thus  the  Economic  Man. 

But  how  about  the  Economic  Woman? 

To  the  androcentric  mind  she  does  not 
exist — women  are  females,  and  that's  all; 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        237 

their  working  abilities  are  limited  to  per- 
sonal service. 

That  it  would  be  possible  to  develop  in- 
dustry to  far  greater  heights,  and  to  find  in 
social  economics  a  simple  and  beneficial 
process  for  the  promotion  of  human  life  and 
prosperity,  under  any  other  impulse  than 
these  two,  Desire  and  Combat,  is  hard  in- 
deed to  recognize — for  the  "male  mind." 

So  absolutely  interwoven  are  our  existing 
concepts  of  maleness  and  humanness,  so  sure 
are  we  that  men  are  people  and  women  only 
females,  that  the  claim  of  equal  weight  and 
dignity  in  human  affairs  of  the  feminine  in- 
stincts and  methods  is  scouted  as  absurd. 
We  find  existing  industry  almost  wholly  in 
male  hands;  find  it  done  as  men  do  it;  as- 
sume that  that  is  the  way  it  must  be  done. 

When  women  suggest  that  it  could  be 
done  differently,  their  proposal  is  waved 
aside — they  are  "only  women" — their  ideas 
are  "womanish." 

Agreed.  So  are  men  "only  men,"  their 
ideas  are  "mannish";  and  of  the  two  the 
women  are  more  vitally  human  than  the 
men,  by  nature. 


238  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

The  female  is  the  race-type — the  man  the 
variant. 

The  female,  as  a  race-type,  having  the 
female  processes  besides,  best  performs  the 
race  processes.  The  male,  however,  has  with 
great  difficulty  developed  them,  always 
heavily  handicapped  by  his  maleness;  being 
in  origin  essentially  a  creature  of  sex,  and  so 
dominated  almost  exclusively  by  sex  im- 
pulses. 

The  human  instinct  of  mutual  sendee  is 
checked  by  the  masculine  instinct  of  com- 
bat; the  human  tendency  to  specialize  in  la- 
bor, to  rejoicingly  pour  force  in  lines  of  spe- 
cialized expression,  is  checked  by  the  pre- 
dacious instinct,  which  will  exert  itself  for 
reward;  and  disfigured  by  the  masculine  in- 
stinct of  self-expression,  which  is  an  entirely 
different  thing  from  the  great  human  out- 
pouring of  world  force. 

Great  men,  the  world's  teachers  and  lead- 
ers, are  great  in  humanness;  mere  maleness 
does  not  make  for  greatness  unless  it  be  in 
warfare — a  disadvantageous  glory!  Great 
women  also  must  be  great  in  humanness ;  but 
their  female  instincts  are  not  so  subversive 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        239 

of  human  progress  as  are  the  instincts  of  the 
male.  To  be  a  teacher  and  leader,  to  love 
and  serve,  to  guard  and  guide  and  help,  are 
well  in  line  with  motherhood. 

"Are  they  not  also  in  line  with  father- 
hood?" will  be  asked;  and,  "Are  not  the 
father's  paternal  instincts  masculine?" 

No,  they  are  not;  they  differ  in  no  way 
from  the  maternal,  in  so  far  as  they  are 
beneficial.  Parental  functions  of  the  higher 
sort,  of  the  human  sort,  are  identical.  The 
father  can  give  his  children  many  advan- 
tages which  the  mother  can  not;  but  that  is 
due  to  his  superiority  as  a  human  being.  He 
possesses  far  more  knowledge  and  power  in 
the  world,  the  human  world;  he  himself  is 
more  developed  in  human  powers  and 
processes;  and  is  therefore  able  to  do  much 
for  his  children  which  the  mother  can  not; 
but  this  is  in  no  way  due  to  his  masculinity. 
It  is  in  this  development  of  human  powers 
in  man,  through  fatherhood,  that  we  may 
read  the  explanation  of  our  short  period  of 
androcentric  culture. 

So  thorough  and  complete  a  reversal  of 
previous  relation,  such  continuance  of  what 


240  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

appears  in  every  way  an  unnatural  position, 
must  have  had  some  justification  in  racial 
advantages,  or  it  could  not  have  endured. 
This  is  its  justification;  the  establishment  of 
humanness  in  the  male;  he  being  led  into  it, 
along  natural  lines,  by  the  exercise  of  pre- 
viously existing  desires. 

In  a  male  culture  the  attracting  forces 
must  inevitably  have  been,  we  have  seen,  De- 
sire and  Combat.  These  masculine  forces, 
acting  upon  human  processes,  while  neces- 
sary to  the  uplifting  of  the  man,  have  been 
anything  but  uplifting  to  civilization.  A 
sex  which  thinks,  feels  and  acts  in  terms  of 
combat  is  difficult  to  harmonize  in  the  smooth 
bonds  of  human  relationship;  that  they  have 
succeeded  so  well  is  a  beautiful  testimony  to 
the  superior  power  of  race  tendency  over 
sex  tendency.  Uniting  and  organizing, 
crudely  and  temporarily,  for  the  common 
hunt ;  and  then,  with  progressive  elaboration, 
for  the  common  fight;  they  are  now  using 
the  same  tactics — and  the  same  desires,  un- 
fortunately— in  common  work. 

Union,  organization,  complex  inter- 
service,  are  the  essential  processes  of  a  grow- 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        241 

ing  society;  in  them,  in  the  ever-increasing 
discharge  of  power  along  widening  lines  of 
action,  is  the  joy  and  health  of  social  life. 
But  so  far  men  combine  in  order  to  better 
combat;  the  mutual  service  held  incidental 
to  the  common  end  of  conquest  and  plunder. 

In  spite  of  this  the  overmastering  power 
of  humanness  is  now  developing  among 
modern  men  immense  organizations  of  a 
wholly  beneficial  character,  with  no  purpose 
but  mutual  advantage.  This  is  true  human 
growth,  and  as  such  will  inevitably  take  the 
place  of  the  sex-prejudiced  earlier  processes. 

The  human  character  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion is  now  being  more  and  more  insisted 
on ;  the  practical  love  and  service  of  each  and 
all ;  in  place  of  the  old  insistence  on  Desire — 
for  a  Crown  and  Harp  in  Heaven,  and  Com- 
bat— with  that  everlasting  Adversary. 

In  economics  this  great  change  is  rapidly 
going  on  before  our  eyes.  It  is  a  change  in 
idea,  in  basic  concept,  in  our  theory  of  what 
the  whole  thing  is  about.  We  are  beginning 
to  see  the  world,  not  as  "a  fair  field  and  no 
favor" — not  a  place  for  one  man  to  get 
ahead  of  others,  for  a  price ;  but  as  an  estab- 


242  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

lishment  belonging  to  us,  the  proceeds  of 
which  are  to  be  applied,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  to  human  advantage. 

In  the  old  idea,  the  wholly  masculine  idea, 
based  on  the  processes  of  sex-combat,  the 
advantage  of  the  world  lay  in  having  "the 
best  man  win."  Some,  in  the  first  steps  of 
enthusiasm  for  Eugenics,  think  so  still; 
imagining  that  the  primal  process  of  pro- 
moting evolution  through  the  paternity  of 
the  conquering  male  is  the  best  process. 

To  have  one  superior  lion  kill  six  or  sixty 
inferior  lions,  and  leave  a  progeny  of  more 
superior  lions  behind  him,  is  all  right — for 
lions;  the  superiority  in  fighting  being  all 
the  superiority  they  need. 

But  the  man  able  to  outwit  his  fellows,  to 
destroy  them  in  physical,  or  ruin  in  finan- 
cial, combat,  is  not,  therefore,  a  superior  hu- 
man creature.  Even  physical  superiority,  as 
a  fighter,  does  not  prove  the  kind  of  vigor 
best  calculated  to  resist  disease,  or  to  adapt 
itself  to  changing  conditions. 

That  our  masculine  culture  in  its  effect  on 
Economics  and  Industry  is  injurious,  is 
clearly  shown  by  the  whole  open  page  of 


INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS        243 

history.  From  the  simple  beneficent  activ- 
ities of  a  matriarchal  period  we  follow  the 
same  lamentable  steps;  nation  after  nation. 
Women  are  enslaved  and  captives  are  en- 
slaved; a  military  despotism  is  developed; 
labor  is  despised  and  discouraged.  Then 
when  the  irresistible  social  forces  do  bring 
us  onward,  in  science,  art,  commerce,  and 
all  that  we  call  civilization,  we  find  the  same 
check  acting  always  upon  that  progress ;  and 
the  really  vital  social  processes  of  produc- 
tion and  distribution,  heavily  injured  by  the 
financial  combat  and  carnage  which  rages 
ever  over  and  among  them. 

The  real  development  of  the  people,  the 
forming  of  finer  physiques,  finer  minds,  a 
higher  level  of  efficiency,  a  broader  range  of 
enjoyment  and  accomplishment — is  hin- 
dered and  not  helped  by  this  artificially 
maintained  "struggle  for  existence,"  this 
constant  endeavor  to  eliminate  what,  from  a 
masculine  standard,  is  "unfit." 

That  we  have  progressed  thus  far,  that  we 
are  now  moving  forward  so  rapidly,  is  in 
spite  of  and  not  because  of  our  androcentric 
culture. 


244  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 


CHAPTER  XIV 


A  HUMAN  WORLD 


IN  the  change  from  the  dominance  of  one 
sex  to  the  equal  power  of  two,  to  what 
may  we  look  forward?  What  effect 
upon  civilization  is  to  be  expected  from  the 
equality  of  womanhood  in  the  human  race? 

To  put  the  most  natural  question  first — 
what  will  men  lose  by  it?  Many  men  are 
genuinely  concerned  about  this;  fearing 
some  new  position  of  subservience  and  dis- 
respect. Others  laugh  at  the  very  idea  of 
change  in  their  position,  relying  as  always 
on  the  heavier  fist.  So  long  as  fighting  was 
the  determining  process,  the  best  fighter 
must  needs  win;  but  in  the  rearrangement 
of  processes  which  marks  our  age,  superior 
physical  strength  does  not  make  the  poorer 
wealthy,  nor  even  the  soldier  a  general. 

The  major  processes  of  life  to-day  are 
quite  within  the  powers  of  women;  women 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  245 

are  fulfilling  their  new  relations  more  and 
more  successfully;  gathering  new  strength, 
new  knowledge,  new  ideals.  The  change  is 
upon  us;  what  will  it  do  to  men? 

No  harm. 

As  we  are  a  monogamous  race,  there  will 
be  no  such  drastic  and  cruel  selection  among 
competing  males  as  would  eliminate  the  vast 
majority  as  unfit.  Even  though  some  be 
considered  unfit  for  fatherhood,  all  human 
life  remains  open  to  them.  Perhaps  the 
most  important  feature  of  this  change  comes 
in  right  here ;  along  this  old  line  of  sex-selec- 
tion, replacing  that  power  in  the  right 
hands,  and  using  it  for  the  good  of  the  race. 

The  woman,  free  at  last,  intelligent, 
recognizing  her  real  place  and  responsibil- 
ity in  life  as  a  human  being,  will  be  not  less, 
but  more,  efficient  as  a  mother.  She  will 
understand  that,  in  the  line  of  physical  evo- 
lution, motherhood  is  the  highest  process; 
and  that  her  work,  as  a  contribution  to  an 
improved  race,  must  always  involve  this 
great  function.  She  will  see  that  right  par- 
entage is  the  purpose  of  the  whole  scheme 
of  sex-relationship,  and  act  accordingly. 


246  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

In  our  time,  his  human  faculties  being 
sufficiently  developed,  civilized  man  can 
look  over  and  around  his  sex  limitations,  and 
begin  to  see  what  are  the  true  purposes  and 
methods  of  human  life. 

He  is  now  beginning  to  learn  that  his 
own  governing  necessity  of  Desire  is  not 
the  governing  necessity  of  parentage,  but 
only  a  contributory  tendency;  and  that, 
in  the  interests  of  better  parentage, 
motherhood  is  the  dominant  factor,  and 
must  be  so  considered. 

In  slow  reluctant  admission  of  this  fact, 
man  heretofore  has  recognized  one  class  of 
women  as  mothers;  and  has  granted  them 
a  varying  amount  of  consideration  as  such; 
but  he  has  none  the  less  insisted  on  main- 
taining another  class  of  women,  forbidden 
motherhood,  and  merely  subservient  to  his 
desires;  a  barren,  mischievous  unnatural  re- 
lation, wholly  aside  from  parental  purposes, 
and  absolutely  injurious  to  society.  This 
whole  field  of  morbid  action  will  be  elim- 
inated from  human  life  by  the  normal  de- 
velopment of  women. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  interfering  with  or 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  247 

punishing  men;  still  less  of  interfering  with 
or  punishing  women ;  but  purely  a  matter  of 
changed  education  and  opportunity  for 
every  child. 

Each  and  all  shall  be  taught  the  real  na- 
ture and  purpose  of  motherhood;  the  real 
nature  and  purpose  of  manhood;  what  each 
is  for,  and  which  is  the  more  important.  A 
new  sense  of  the  power  and  pride  of  woman- 
hood will  waken;  a  womanhood  no  longer 
sunk  in  helpless  dependence  upon  men;  no 
longer  limited  to  mere  unpaid  house-service ; 
no  longer  blinded  by  the  false  morality 
which  subjects  even  motherhood  to  man's 
dominance;  but  a  womanhood  which  will 
recognize  its  pre-eminent  responsibility  to 
the  human  race,  and  live  up  to  it.  Then, 
with  all  normal  and  right  competition  among 
men  for  the  favor  of  women,  those  best 
fitted  for  fatherhood  will  be  chosen.  Those 
who  are  not  chosen  will  live  single — per- 
force. 

Many,  under  the  old  mistaken  notion  of 
what  used  to  be  called  the  "social  necessity" 
of  prostitution,  will  protest  at  the  idea  of  its 
extinction. 


248  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

"It  is  necessary  to  have  it,"  they  will  say. 

"Necessary  to  whom?" 

Not  to  the  women  hideously  sacrificed  to 
it,  surely. 

Not  to  society,  honey-combed  with  dis- 
eases due  to  this  cause. 

Not  to  the  family,  weakened  and  impov- 
erished by  it. 

To  whom  then?    To  the  men  who  want  it ? 

But  it  is  not  good  for  them,  it  promotes 
all  manner  of  disease,  of  vice,  of  crime.  It 
is  absolutely  and  unquestionably  a  "social 
evil." 

An  intelligent  and  powerful  womanhood 
will  put  an  end  to  this  indulgence  of  one 
sex  at  the  expense  of  the  other  and  to  the 
injury  of  both. 

In  this  inevitable  change  will  lie  what 
some  men  will  consider  a  loss.  But  only 
those  of  the  present  generation.  For  the 
sons  of  the  women  now  entering  upon  this 
new  era  of  world  life  will  be  differently 
reared.  They  will  recognize  the  true  rela- 
tion of  men  to  the  primal  process;  and  be 
amazed  that  for  so  long  the  greater  values 
have  been  lost  sight  of  in  favor  of  the  less. 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  249 

This  one  change  will  do  more  to  promote 
the  physical  health  and  beauty  of  the  race; 
to  improve  the  quality  of  children  born,  and 
the  general  vigor  and  purity  of  social  life, 
than  any  one  measure  which  could  be  pro- 
posed. It  rests  upon  a  recognition  of  moth- 
erhood as  the  real  base  and  cause  of  the 
family ;  and  dismisses  to  the  limbo  of  all  out- 
worn superstition  that  false  Hebraic  and 
grossly  androcentric  doctrine  that  the 
woman  is  to  be  subject  to  the  man,  and  that 
he  shall  rule  over  her.  He  has  tried  this 
arrangement  long  enough — to  the  grievous 
injury  of  the  world.  A  higher  standard  of 
happiness  will  result;  equality  and  mutual 
respect  between  parents;  pure  love,  unde- 
nted by  self-interests  on  either  side;  and  a 
new  respect  for  Childhood. 

With  the  Child,  seen  at  last  to  be  the  gov- 
erning purpose  of  this  relation,  with  all  the 
best  energies  of  men  and  women  bent  on 
raising  the  standard  of  life  for  all  children, 
we  shall  have  a  new  status  of  family  life 
which  will  be  clean  and  noble,  and  satisfying 
to  all  its  members. 

The  change  in  all  the  varied  lines  of  hu- 


250  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

man  work  is  beyond  the  powers  of  any  pres- 
ent day  prophet  to  forecast  with  precision. 
A  new  grade  of  womanhood  we  can  clearly 
foresee;  proud,  strong,  serene,  independent; 
great  mothers  of  great  women  and  great 
men.  These  will  hold  high  standards  and 
draw  men  up  to  them;  by  no  compulsion 
save  nature's  law  of  attraction.  A  clean 
and  healthful  world,  enjoying  the  taste  of 
life  as  it  never  has  since  racial  babyhood, 
with  homes  of  quiet  and  content — this  we 
can  foresee. 

Art,  in  the  extreme  sense,  will  perhaps 
always  belong  most  to  men.  It  would  seem 
as  if  that  ceaseless  urge  to  expression,  was, 
at  least  originally,  most  congenial  to  the 
male.  But  applied  art,  in  every  form,  and 
art  used  directly  for  transmission  of  ideas, 
such  as  literature,  or  oratory,  appeals  to 
women  as  much,  if  not  more,  than  to  men. 

We  can  make  no  safe  assumption  as  to 
what,  if  any,  distinction  there  will  be  in  the 
free  human  work  of  men  and  women,  until 
we  have  seen  generation  after  generation 
grow  up  under  absolutely  equal  conditions. 
In  all  our  games  and  sports  and  minor  so- 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  251 

cial  customs,  such  changes  will  occur  as  must 
needs  follow  upon  the  rising  dignity  allotted 
to  the  woman's  temperament,  the  woman's 
point  of  view;  not  in  the  least  denying  to 
men  the  fullest  exercise  of  their  special  pow- 
ers and  preferences;  but  classifying  these 
newly,  as  not  human — merely  male.  At 
present  we  have  pages  or  columns  in  our 
papers,  marked  as  "The  Woman's  Page," 
"Of  Interest  to  Women,"  and  similar  de- 
limiting titles.  Similarly  we  might  have  dis- 
tinctly masculine  matters  so  marked  and 
specified;  not  assumed  as  now  to  be  of  gen- 
eral human  interest. 

The  effect  of  the  change  upon  Ethics  and 
Religion  is  deep  and  wide.  With  the  en- 
trance of  women  upon  full  human  life,  a 
new  principle  comes  into  prominence;  the 
principle  of  loving  service.  That  this  is  the 
governing  principle  of  Christianity  is  be- 
lieved by  many;  but  an  androcentric  inter- 
pretation has  quite  overlooked  it ;  and  made, 
as  we  have  shown,  the  essential  dogma  of 
their  faith  the  desire  of  an  enternal  reward 
and  the  combat  with  an  eternal  enemy. 

The   feminine  attitude  in  life  is  wholly 


252  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

different.  As  a  female  she  has  merely  to 
be  herself  and  passively  attract;  neither  to 
compete  nor  to  pursue;  as  a  mother  her 
whole  process  is  one  of  growth;  first  the  de- 
velopment of  the  live  child  within  her,  and 
the  wonderful  nourishment  from  her  own 
body;  and  then  all  the  later  cultivation  to 
make  the  child  grow;  all  the  watching, 
teaching,  guarding,  feeding.  In  none  of 
this  is  there  either  desire,  combat,  or  self- 
expression.  The  feminine  attitude,  as  ex- 
pressed in  religion,  makes  of  it  a  patient 
practical  fulfillment  of  law;  a  process  of 
large  sure  improvements;  a  limitless  com- 
forting love  and  care. 

This  full  assurance  of  love  and  of  power; 
this  endless  cheerful  service;  the  broad  pro- 
vision for  all  people;  rather  than  the  com- 
petitive selection  of  a  few  "victors;"  is  the 
natural  presentation  of  religious  truth  from 
the  woman's  viewpoint.  Her  governing 
principle  being  growth  and  not  combat;  her 
main  tendency  being  to  give  and  not  to  get ; 
she  more  easily  and  naturally  lives  and 
teaches  these  religious  principles.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  the  broader,  gentler  teach- 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  253 

ins"  of  the  Unitarian  and  Universalist  sects 
have  appealed  so  especially  to  women,  and 
that  so  many  women  preach  in  their 
churches. 

This  principle  of  growth,  as  applied  and 
used  in  general  human  life,  will  work  to  far 
other  ends  than  those  now  so  painfully  vis- 
ible. 

In  education,  for  instance,  with  neither 
reward  nor  punishment  as  spur  or  bait;  with 
no  competition  to  rouse  effort  and  animos- 
ity, but  rather  with  the  feeling  of  a  gardener 
towards  his  plants;  the  teacher  will  teach 
and  the  children  learn,  in  mutual  ease  and 
happiness.  The  law  of  passive  attraction 
applies  here,  leading  to  such  ingenuity  in 
presentation  as  shall  arouse  the  child's  in- 
terest; and,  in  the  true  spirit  of  promoting 
growth,  each  child  will  have  his  best  and 
fullest  training,  without  regard  to  who  is 
"ahead"  of  him,  or  her,  or  who  "behind." 

We  do  not  sadly  measure  the  cabbage- 
stalk  by  the  corn-stalk,  and  praise  the  corn 
for  getting  ahead  of  the  cabbage — nor  in- 
cite the  cabbage  to  emulate  the  corn.      We 


254  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

nourish  each,  to  its  best  growth — and  are 
the  richer. 

That  every  child  on  earth  shall  have  right 
conditions  to  make  the  best  growth  possible 
to  it;  that  every  citizen,  from  birth  to  death, 
shall  have  a  chance  to  learn  all  he  or  she 
can  assimilate,  to  develop  every  power  that 
is  in  them — for  the  common  good; — this  will 
be  the  aim  of  education,  under  human  man- 
agement. 

In  the  world  of  "society"  we  may  look 
for  very  radical  changes. 

With  all  women  full  human  beings, 
trained  and  useful  in  some  form  of  work, 
the  class  of  busy  idlers  who  run  about  for- 
ever "entertaining"  and  being  "entertained" 
will  disappear  as  utterly  as  will  the  prosti- 
tute. No  woman  with  real  work  to  do  could 
have  the  time  for  such  petty  amusements; 
or  enjoy  them  if  she  did  have  time.  No 
woman  with  real  work  to  do,  work  she  loved 
and  was  well  fitted  for,  work  honored  and 
well-paid,  would  take  up  the  Unnatural 
Trade.  Genuine  relaxation  and  recreation, 
all  manner  of  healthful  sports  and  pastimes, 
beloved  of  both  sexes  to-day,  will  remain, 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  255 

of  course;  but  the  set  structure  of  "social 
functions" — so  laughably  misnamed — will 
disappear  with  the  "society  women"  who 
make  it  possible.  Once  active  members  of 
real  Society,  no  woman  could  go  back  to 
"society,"  any  more  than  a  roughrider  could 
return  to  a  hobbyhorse. 

New  development  in  dress,  wise,  comfort- 
able, beautiful,  may  be  confidently  expected, 
as  woman  becomes  more  human.  No  fully 
human  creature  could  hold  up  its  head  un- 
der the  absurdities  our  women  wear  to-day 
— and  have  worn  for  dreary  centuries. 

So  on  through  all  the  aspects  of  life  we 
may  look  for  changes,  rapid  and  far-reach- 
ing; but  natural  and  all  for  good.  The  im- 
provement is  not  due  to  any  inherent  moral 
superiority  of  women;  nor  to  any  moral  in- 
feriority of  men;  men  at  present,  as  more 
human,  are  ahead  of  women  in  all  distinctly 
human  ways;  yet  their  maleness,  as  we  have 
shown  repeatedly,  warps  and  disfigures 
their  humanness.  The  woman,  being  by  na- 
ture the  race-type,  and  her  feminine  func- 
tions being  far  more  akin  to  human  func- 
tions than  are  those  essential  to  the  male, 


256  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD 

will  bring  into  human  life  a  more  normal 
influence. 

Under  this  more  normal  influence  our 
present  perversities  of  function  will,  of 
course,  tend  to  disappear.  The  directly  ser- 
viceable tendency  of  women,  as  shown  in 
every  step  of  their  public  work,  will  have 
small  patience  with  hoary  traditions  of  ab- 
surdity. We  need  but  look  at  long  recorded 
facts  to  see  what  women  do — or  try  to  do, 
when  they  have  opportunity.  Even  in  their 
crippled,  smothered  past,  they  have  made 
valiant  efforts — not  always  wise — in  charity 
and  philanthropy. 

In  our  own  time  this  is  shown  through  all 
the  length  and  breadth  of  our  country,  by 
the  Woman's  Clubs.  Little  groups  of 
women,  drawing  together  in  human  rela- 
tion, at  first,  perhaps,  with  no  better  pur- 
pose than  to  "improve  their  minds,"  have 
grown  and  spread ;  combined  and  federated ; 
and  in  their  great  reports,  representing  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  women — we  find  a 
splendid  record  of  human  work.  They 
strive  always  to  improve  something,  to  take 
care  of  something,  to  help  and  serve  and 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  257 

benefit.  In  "village  improvement,"  in  trav- 
eling libraries,  in  lecture  courses  and  ex- 
hibitions, in  promoting  good  legislation;  in 
many  a  line  of  noble  effort  our  Women's 
Clubs  show  what  women  want  to  do. 

Men  do  not  have  to  do  these  things 
through  their  clubs,  which  are  mainly  for 
pleasure;  they  can  accomplish  what  they 
wish  to  through  regular  channels.  But  the 
character  and  direction  of  the  influence  of 
women  in  human  affairs  is  conclusively  es- 
tablished by  the  things  they  already  do  and 
try  to  do.  In  those  countries,  and  in  our 
own  states,  where  they  are  already  full  citi- 
zens, the  legislation  introduced  and  pro- 
moted by  them  is  of  the  same  beneficent 
character.  The  normal  woman  is  a  strong 
creature,  loving  and  serviceable.  The  kind 
of  woman  men  are  afraid  to  entrust  with 
political  power,  selfish,  idle,  over-sexed,  or 
ignorant  and  narrow-minded,  is  not  normal, 
but  is  the  creature  of  conditions  men  have 
made.  We  need  have  no  fear  of  her,  for 
she  will  disappear  with  the  conditions  which 
created  her. 

In  older  days,  without  knowledge  of  the 


258  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD. 

natural  sciences,  we  accepted  life  as  static. 
If,  being  born  in  China,  we  grew  up  with 
foot-bound  women,  we  assumed  that  women 
were  such,  and  must  so  remain.  Born  in 
India,  we  accepted  the  child-wife,  the  pitiful 
child-widow,  the  ecstatic  suttee,  as  natural 
expressions  of  womanhood.  In  each  age, 
each  country,  we  have  assumed  life  to  be 
necessarily  what  it  was — a  moveless  fact. 

All  this  is  giving  way  fast  in  our  new 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  life.  We  find  that 
Growth  is  the  eternal  law,  and  that  even 
rocks  are  slowly  changing.  Human  life  is 
seen  to  be  as  dynamic  as  any  other  form; 
and  the  most  certain  tiling  about  it  is  that 
it  will  change.  In  the  light  of  this  knowl- 
edge we  need  no  longer  accept  the  load  of 
what  we  call  "sin;"  the  grouped  misery  of 
poverty,  disease  and  crime;  the  cumbrous, 
inefficacious,  wasteful  processes  of  life  to- 
day, as  needful  or  permanent. 

We  have  but  to  learn  the  real  elements  in 
humanity;  its  true  powers  and  natural  char- 
acteristics; to  see  wherein  we  are  hampered 
by  the  wrong  ideas  and  inherited  habits  of 
earlier  generations,  and  break  loose  from 


A  HUMAN  WORLD  259 

them — then  we  can  safely  and  swiftly  intro- 
duce a  far  nobler  grade  of  living. 

Of  all  crippling  hindrances  in  false  ideas, 
we  have  none  more  universally  mischievous 
than  this  root  error  about  men  and  women. 
Given  the  old  androcentric  theory,  and  we 
have  an  androcentric  culture — the  kind  we 
so  far  know;  this  short  stretch  we  call  "his- 
tory;" with  its  proud  and  pitiful  record. 
We  have  done  wonders  of  upward  growth — 
for  growth  is  the  main  law,  and  may  not  be 
wholly  resisted.  But  we  have  hindered,  per- 
verted, temporarily  checked  that  growth, 
age  after  age;  and  again  and  again  has  a 
given  nation,  far  advanced  and  promising, 
sunk  to  ruin,  and  left  another  to  take  up 
its  task  of  social  evolution;  repeat  its  errors 
— and  its  failure. 

One  major  cause  of  the  decay  of  nations 
is  "the  social  evil" — a  thing  wholly  due  to 
the  androcentric  culture.  Another  steady 
endless  check  is  warfare — due  to  the  same 
cause.  Largest  of  all  is  poverty;  that 
spreading  disease  which  grows  with  our  so- 
cial growth  and  shows  most  horribly  when 
and  where  we  are  most  proud,  keeping  step, 


260  THE  MAN-MADE  WORLD. 

as  it  were,  with  private  wealth.  This,  too, 
in  large  measure,  is  due  to  the  false  ideas  on 
industry  and  economics,  based,  like  the  oth- 
ers mentioned,  on  a  wholly  masculine  view 
of  life. 

By  changing  our  underlying  theory  in 
this  matter,  we  change  all  the  resultant  as- 
sumption; and  it  is  this  alteration  in  our 
basic  theory  of  life  which  is  being  urged. 

The  scope  and  purpose  of  human  life  is 
entirely  above  and  beyond  the  field  of  sex 
relationship.  Women  are  human  beings,  as 
much  as  men,  by  nature ;  and  as  women,  are 
even  more  sympathetic  with  human 
processes.  To  develop  human  life  in  its 
true  powers  we  need  full  equal  citizenship 
for  women. 

The  great  woman's  movement  and  labor 
movement  of  to-day  are  parts  of  the  same 
pressure,  the  same  world-progress.  An 
economic  democracy  must  rest  on  a  free 
womanhood;  and  a  free  womanhod  in- 
evitably leads  to  an  economic  democracy. 


BOOKS  BY  CHARLOTTE  PERKINS  GILMAN 

"THE  YELLOW  WALLPAPER" 

Worthy  of  a  place  beside  some  of  the  weird  master- 
pieces of  Hawthorne  and  Poe.  — Literature. 

As  a  short  story  it  stands  among  the  most  powerful 
produced  in  America.  — Chicago  News. 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co.,  $0.50. 


THE  FORERUNNER 

A  monthly  magazine,  written, 
edited,   owned  and  published 

by 

Charlotte  Perkins  Gilman 

67  Wall  Street,  New  York  City 
U.  S.  A. 


SUBSCRIPTION    PER    YEAR 

Domestic $1.00 

(.  anadian 1.12 

Foreign 1.25 


Bound  Volumes,    each  year  $1.40   post  paid 
Except  Volume  I  which  is  $1.75   post  paid 


This  magazine  carries  Mrs.  Gilman's  best  and  newest 
work,  her  social  philosophy,  verse,  satire,  fiction,  ethical 
teaching,  humor  and  opinion. 

It  stands  for  Humanness  in  Women  and  Men ;  for 
better  methods  in  Child  Culture ;  for  the  New  Ethics,  the 
better  Economics — the  New  World  we  are  to  make,  are 
making.  The  breadth  of  Mrs.  Gilman's  thought  and  her 
power  of  expressing  it  have  made  her  well-known  in 
America  and  Europe  as  a  leader  along  lines  of  human 
improvement  and  a  champion  of  woman. 

THE  FORERUNNER  voices  her  thought  and  its 
messages  are  not  only  many,  but  strong,  true  and  vital. 

CHARLTON  COMPANY,  67  Wall  St..  New  York 


BOOKS  BY  CHARLOTTE  PERKINS  GILMAN 

"WOMEN  AND  ECONOMICS" 

Since  John  Stuart  Mill's  essay  there  has  been  no 
book  dealing  with  the  whole  position  of  women  to 
approach  it  in  originality  of  conception  and  brilliancy 
of  exposition.  — London  Chronicle. 

The  most  significant  utterance  on  the  subject  since 
Mill's  "Subjection  of   Women."  — The  Nation. 

It  is  the  strongest  book  on  the  woman  question  that 
has  yet  been  published.  — Minneapolis  Journal. 

A  remarkable  book.  A  work  on  economics  that  has 
not  a  dull  page, — the  work  of  a  woman  about  women 
that  has  not  a  flippant  word.        — Boston  Transcript. 

This  book  unites  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  charm 
of  a  brilliantly  written  essay  with  the  inevitable  logic 
of  a  proposition  of  Euclid.  Nothing  that  we  have 
read  for  many  a  long  day  can  approach  in  clearness 
of  conception,  in  power  of  arrangement,  and  in  lucidity 
of  expression  the  argument  developed  in  the  first  seven 
chapters  of  this  remarkable  book. 

— Westminster    Gazette,    London. 

Will  be  widely  read  and  discussed  as  the  cleverest, 
fairest,  most  forcible  presentation  of  the  view  of  the 
rapidly  increasing  group  who  look  with  favor  on  the 
extension  of  industrial   employment  to   women. 

— Political    Science    Quarterly. 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co.,  $1.50. 

•'Women  and  Economics"  has  been  translated  into  German, 
Dutch,  Italian,  Hungarian,  Russian  and  Japanese. 

"CONCERNING  CHILDREN" 

Wanted  : — A  philanthropist,  to  give  a  copy  to  every 
English-speaking  parent.       — The  Times,  New  York. 

Should  be  read  by  every  mother  in  the  land. 

— The  Press,  New   York. 

Wholesomely  disturbing  book  that  deserves  to  be 
read  for  its  own  sake.  — Chicago  Dial. 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co.,  $1.25. 

"Concerning  Children  ''  has  been  translated  into  German,  Dutch 
and  Yiddish. 

CHARLTON  COMPANY,   67  Wall  St.,  New  York 


BOOKS  BY  CHARLOTTE  PERKINS  GILMAN 

"IN  THIS  OUR  WORLD" 

There  is  a  Joyous  superabundance  of  life,  of 
strength,  of  health,  in  Mrs.  Gilman's  verse,  which 
seems  born  of  the  glorious  sunshine  and  rich  gardens 
of    California.  — Washington    Times. 

The  freshness,  charm  and  geniality  of  her  satire 
temporarily  convert   us  to   her  most   advanced   views. 

— Boston  Journal. 

The  poet  of  women  and  for  women,  a  new  and 
prophetic  voice  in  the  world.  Montaigne  would  have 
rejoiced  in  her.  — Mexican  Herald. 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co.,  $1.25. 


"THE  HOME" 

Indeed,  Mrs.  Gilman  has  not  intended  her  book  so 
much  as  a  treatise  for  scholars  as  a  surgical  operation 
on  the  popular  mind.  — The  Critic,  New  York. 

Whatever  Mrs.  Gilman  writes,  people  read — approv- 
ing or  protesting,  still  they  read. 

— Republican,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Full  of  thought  and  of  new  and  striking  suggestions. 
Tells  what  the  average  woman  has  and  ought  not  keep, 
what  she  is  and  ought  not  be.        — Literature  World. 

But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  more  stimulating  arraign- 
ment has  ever  before  taken  shape  and  that  the  argument 
of  the  book  is  noble,  and,  on  the  whole,  convincing. 

— Congregationalist,  Boston. 

The  name  of  this  author  is  a  guarantee  of  logical 
reasoning,  sound  economical  principles  and  progressive 
thought.  — The  Craftsman,  Syracuse. 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co.,  $1.00. 

■'The  Home  "  has  been  translated  into  Swedish. 

CHARLTON  COMPANY,   67  Wall  St.,  New  York 


BOOKS  BY 

Charlotte  Perkins  Gilman 

Moving  the  Mountain. 

A  Utopia  at  short  range.  How  we  might  change  this 
country  in  thirty  years,  if  we  changed  our  minds  first. 
Mrs.  Gilman's  latest  book,  like  her  earliest  verse,  is  a 
protest  against  the  parrot  cry  that  "you  can't  alter  human 
nature." 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co $i .  10 


What  Diantha  Did. 

A  Novel. 

"What  she  did  was  to  solve  the  domestic  service 
problem  for  both  mistress  and  maid  in  a  southern  Cali- 
fornia town . "  "  The  Survey. ' ' 

"A  sensible  book,  it  gives  a  new  and  deserved  com- 
prehension of  the  importance  and  complexity  of  house- 
keeping." "The  Independent." 

"Mrs.  Perkins  Gilman  is  as  full  of  ideas  as  ever,  and 
her  Diantha  is  a  model  for  all  young  women."  t 

"The  Englishwoman." 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co $i .  10 


THE  CRUX 

This  book  marks  a  distinct  advance  in  Mrs.  Gilman's 
power  as  a  writer  of  fiction. 

It  is  a  smooth,  pleasant,  natural  sort  of  story,  out  of 
which  suddenly  blazes  the  new  morality,  saying:  "Beware 
of  a  Biological  Sin ;  for  that  there  is  no  forgiveness." 

It  is  a  story  expressly  written  for  girls,  yet  there  will 
be  many  who  would  by  no  means  allow  girls  to  have  such 
knowledge,  though  it  would  save  many  girls. 

By  mail  of  Charlton  Co $i .  10 


Charlton  Co.,  67  Wall  St.,  New  York 


